Items Tagged with 'farm workers'

Farm groups and ag labor advocates are keeping a close eye on pending rulemaking that would add federal rulemaking to the conversation surrounding the health of workers in hot conditions across the country.

USDA has extended the deadline to submit applications for the $665 million Farm and Food Worker Relief (FFWR) Grant Program to March 10.

Food and farm workers who’ve suffered financially from the COVID-19 pandemic will now be able to get help from the Department of Agriculture through grant funds totaling $700 million.

The Senate is set to OK President Joe Biden’s nominees for Interior secretary and U.S. Trade Representative this week, while the House looks to jump-start a congressional debate over immigration reform and farm labor.

The balance of power in the nation’s capital has shifted; Democrats now control both the presidency and Congress for the first time in a decade.

President-elect Joe Biden is out with a $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal that includes some significant new food assistance provisions, including an extension through the summer of the 15% increase in SNAP benefits provided by the COVID aid package enacted in December.

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate a former labor leader, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, to become labor secretary. That’s a critical position for farmers and farmworkers because of the Labor Department’s regulation of labor standards and authority over the H-2A visa program.

Under court order, USDA is reinstating the farm labor survey that has long been used to determine minimum wage rates for H-2A workers. It’s not clear yet how the action will affect 2021 wage rates.

A handful of ag groups have been pushing the federal government to get farm and food employees right behind health care workers and vulnerable populations in the COVID-19 vaccine distribution line. Now, that request has also been filtered to the nation’s 50 governors.