Press Releases

WASHINGTON – Today, Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) issued the following statement in response to the Biden administration’s final rule affecting the H-2A temporary agricultural guest worker program:

“Another rule, another Big Labor giveaway—what a shock. The Department of Labor (DOL) isn’t allowed to interfere in labor-management relations. But statutes, the rule of law, even the Constitution, are rarely followed by this administration. So, it’s no surprise the administration is inappropriately using the H-2A program to advance Big Labor’s agenda. The rule seeks to assist labor unions in organizing agricultural employees, even though Congress specifically exempted agricultural employers from the National Labor Relations Act.

“Other disturbing changes include making it more difficult to remove a worker endangering worker safety or disrupting farm operations and eliminating the 14-day payroll adjustment period that farmers and ranchers say will make the program impossible to carry out. Instead of reforming this program’s extensive requirements to make it more usable and efficient, Biden’s rule doubles down on onerous and overly burdensome regulations. Burying farmers in red tape when they should be burying seeds to produce food Americans depend on is absurd.
 
“The wave of Biden regulations continues, and the pattern is clear: they hurt workers, job creators, and taxpayers. DOL should rescind this harmful rule and go back to the drawing board.”