WASHINGTON, D.C. (RFD NEWS) — Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is heading to Pennsylvania today to meet with farmers and discuss priorities tied to the next Farm Bill as pressure continues mounting on Congress to advance the legislation.
Rollins will join Rob Bresnahan for a farm roundtable in Scott Township, focused on Farm Bill provisions and USDA efforts to support producers and rural communities.
The pair is also expected to hold a press conference following the discussion. RFD News will continue monitoring the event and provide updates as they become available.
Senate Farm Bill Action Still Pending As Lawmakers Call for More Farm Aid
The Farm Bill is currently awaiting action in the Senate after the House approved legislation containing several provisions focused on agriculture, rural development, and producer support.
Rep. Mark Messmer (R-IN) told RFD News the legislation extends far beyond traditional farm policy and includes investments to strengthen rural communities nationwide.
“We have funding in there for affordable childcare for your rural communities, investment in rural hospitals, investment in mental health programs for rural communities, and investment in infrastructure — wastewater, water, broadband projects — that will be funded through increased programming in the Farm Bill,” Messmer shared on last week’s Champions of Rural America.
Messmer pointed to communities like Montgomery, Indiana, where local infrastructure limitations are affecting future development: “They can’t build any more homes in that community until they increase their wastewater capacity.”
Messmer is urging Senate lawmakers to move quickly on the legislation, though no timeline has been announced for a Senate vote.
Meanwhile, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman says he remains focused on getting a final Farm Bill to President Donald Trump while also pursuing additional financial assistance for producers facing economic stress.
“In the immediate future, Congress must provide additional assistance to supplement what USDA provided with the farmer bridge payments and the assistance for specialty crops farmers’ programs,” Boozman said.
Farmers in several states continue warning that rising input costs, tight margins, and weak commodity prices are creating severe financial pressure across agriculture.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson has proposed roughly $20 billion in additional support to help producers offset higher production costs this year.
So far, however, no action has been taken on that proposal in Congress.
Judge Blocks White House H-2A Wage Rate Change
At the same time, a federal judge has declined to block a White House wage rule tied to the H-2A guest worker program. The rule changes how wages are calculated for certain H-2A positions by allowing some jobs to use the Labor Department’s wage calculations instead of relying solely on the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR).
Supporters say the change provides more flexibility within the program, while opponents have argued the rule could lower wages and negatively impact farm workers.
Michelle Grainger, Co-Lead for the Ag Wage Rate Coalition, says those concerns were heavily debated throughout the legal process, but supporters maintained the rule would not create broader harm within the H-2A system.
“We worked very hard to clearly debunk that, and to state that we did not see irreparable harm being the case,” Grainger explains. “Again, this is a highly regulated program, and the level of standards, inspections, and requirements required to participate in the program from an employer as well as an employee were not changing — this was only about the wage rate.”
Some agricultural groups had also expressed concerns that changes to wage calculations could discourage workers from returning through the H-2A program in future seasons.
However, Grainger says those fears have not materialized so far. She says conversations with multiple farmers indicate that their H-2A employees have continued to return for another year of work despite the wage rule changes.
The H-2A program remains a critical source of labor for many agricultural operations across the country, particularly in labor-intensive sectors such as fruit, vegetable, nursery, and specialty crop production.
