Sponsors (56)
Official title: To modernize the process for the admission of H-2A workers, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 30, 2026 by Glenn Thompson · Last progress June 30, 2026
The bill streamlines and speeds H‑2A hiring and strengthens certain worker safety and transparency measures, but concentrates authority, tightens deadlines and definitions, and risks increased costs, digital-exclusion, and reduced eligibility for some workers.
Employers (especially farms) and H-2A workers will get faster, more transparent, and more coordinated processing and hiring: a national job registry, concurrent agency review, and statutory timing requirements aim to cut last-minute disruptions and speed decisions.
H-2A workers will have stronger health and safety protections: inspected, standards-compliant housing with capped daily charges and required heat-illness prevention plans, plus a GAO housing assessment that could lead to more targeted enforcement.
Farmers, processors, and workers get clearer rules on what counts as covered 'agricultural labor' and when work is considered 'temporary' (under 350 days), reducing regulatory uncertainty and allowing the Secretary of Agriculture to update definitions for new/agricultural practices.
Immigrants, state governments, and employers may face a concentration of adjudicatory power in DHS (reducing DOJ involvement) combined with faster rulemaking tools (interim final rules), increasing the risk of politicized decisions and reduced stakeholder input.
Employers (especially small farms) face tighter procedural deadlines (e.g., 7-day resubmission windows, short adjudication timelines, and a one‑year implementation requirement) that heighten administrative burden and increase the risk of missed deadlines, errors, or denials.
Workers and employers risk losing access to labor because narrower statutory definitions and the fixed 350‑day 'temporary' cutoff could exclude some long-season or certain processing jobs from H‑2A eligibility.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Reforms H‑2A: clarifies agricultural work, sets 350‑day temporary threshold, shifts authority to DHS, shortens timelines, and requires a one‑year single online processing platform.
Makes major changes to the H‑2A temporary agricultural worker program: moves several statutory authorities to the Department of Homeland Security, narrows and clarifies what counts as "agricultural labor," shortens some processing and resubmission timelines, ties the H‑2A work period to posting on an electronic registry, and requires a one‑year rollout of a single online platform to let employers and agencies complete and concurrently review labor certifications and H‑2A petitions. It also directs a GAO study of H‑2A housing and delays the law's full effect for one year while allowing agencies to issue interim final rules.