Leaders of the American Farm Bureau Federation, President Zippy Duvall and Vice President Scott VanderWal want Congress to create a guest worker program for agriculture. Both say the U.S. has a farm labor shortage. VanderWal says an a measure to solve that problem failed in the last Congress.

He says a guest worker program is needed that is flexible for farmers and ranchers and helps those immigrant laborers who work both seasonally and year round in the vegetable fields, dairies and packing plants.

VanderWal says intense politics has unnecessarily prevented Congress from passing an immigration bill that contains guest worker provisions.

Farm Bureau supports the Agricultural Worker Program Act of 2019 introduced by California Representative Zoe Lofgren.