SAWA on the Hill: What Ag Employers Need to Know About H-2A Reform

In September, Caroline Debnam, Partnerships & Community Manager at Seso, joined the Virginia Agribusiness Council on Capitol Hill. The group spent the day meeting with Virginia congressional offices to answer questions about the Securing Agriculture's Workforce Act (H.R. 9535), better known as SAWA, and to make the case for why H-2A reform matters so much for the industry.

From left to right: Tristan Williams, Shenandoah Valley Orchards; Caroline Debnam, Seso; Dave Oberting, Questr Automation; Caleigh McDonough, Office of Rep. Rob Wittman; Jim Saunders, Saunders Brothers; Taylor Hubbard and Trey Davis, Virginia Agribusiness Council.

Below is what SAWA would change, where it stands, and what growers can do right now.

SAWA, the quick version

SAWA was introduced on June 30, 2026 by House Agriculture Committee Chairman GT Thompson. It would be the first major rewrite of the H-2A program in law since the program was created in 1986.

A few of the changes growers ask about most:

• Removes current seasonal limitations. Contracts of up to 350 days would count as temporary, which opens H-2A to dairy, livestock and other operations that need hands every day of the year.

• Wage rates you can plan around. The AEWR formula gets written into law, and yearly changes are capped at +3.25% or -1.5%.

• Less paperwork, faster crews. Labor and housing certifications good for up to 3 years, a 15-day deadline for DHS to respond to a petition, and one online platform for filing.

• Seafood counts. Aquaculture, including the primary processing of seafood, would be defined as farm work.

Where SAWA stands

SAWA was referred to the House Judiciary Committee when it was introduced in June, and that's where it sits today.

Chairman Thompson has said publicly that nothing will move before the election, and he's pushing for action in the lame-duck session after November. If it doesn't pass by January 3, 2027, it would have to be reintroduced when the new Congress starts in 2027.

The bill has 60+ cosponsors and more than 650 supporting organizations behind it. All but about 8 of the cosponsors are Republicans. Here's how it looks in some of the biggest H-2A states:

• North Carolina - 5

• New York - 4

• Georgia - 4

• Florida - 3

• California - 2

• Washington - 1

• Virginia - 1

California and Washington stand out. Together they account for more than 17% of all certified H-2A jobs, and they have very few names on the bill.

Why it matters for the food supply

The line that stuck with Caroline most came from Jim Saunders, a grower who has been advocating for H-2A on the Hill for 28 years:

"We can either import our food. Or import our labor. And we need H-2A reform in order to continue to grow our food supply domestically."

The numbers back him up:

• The U.S. imported $26.1 billion in fresh fruits and vegetables in FY2025.

• The U.S. lost another 15,000 farms in 2025 alone, down to 1.865 million.

• 398,258 H-2A jobs were certified in FY2025, up from about 48,000 in FY2005, and FY2026 had already reached 349,867 through June.

• Labor is 38% of cash expenses on specialty crop farms, the highest of any farm type.

• U.S. dairy brought in $48.9 billion in 2025, and right now its access to H-2A rests on a June 2026 USCIS policy memo that can be reversed.

There's more than one reason behind each of those trends. But when the crops we eat fresh are also the hardest to staff, a workforce program growers can count on makes a real difference in what gets planted here.

What you can do

Cosponsoring is how a member of Congress shows where they stand, and hearing from growers back home is what moves them.

• Reach out to your representative's office. A short email or call is enough. Ask whether they plan to cosponsor H.R. 9535.

• Tell them what it looks like on your farm. How many workers you bring in, what a late crew costs you, what a wage-rate jump did to your budget. Real numbers from a constituent carry more weight than anything advocates can hand them.

• Work through your association. State farm bureaus, commodity groups and grower associations are already organizing around this. If you're in California or Washington, your voice is especially needed.

If you'd like help figuring out what SAWA would mean for your operation, reach out to your Seso representative or visit sesolabor.com. Caroline would also love to hear how H-2A reform would change things on your farm - you can reach her at caroline.debnam@sesolabor.com.