A bill to impose a state fee for participating in a federal employment program is scheduled for a hearing in Olympia this week.

SB 5438 takes direct aim at farmers and their temporary employees across the state. A public hearing on the bill is scheduled in the state senate for Thursday at 8 a.m. 

The bill would impose a state fee – the only one of its kind in the country – on top of current federal fees on farmers for using the H-2A employment program to hire temporary, seasonal migrant workers. The burden of the bill would fall hardest on migrant workers who are seeking legal employment in the United States, and on farmers who have difficulty in finding enough labor domestically.

Food producers say the bill would make it harder to find the skilled workers needed to harvest crops in fields, orchards, and vineyards around the state, putting upward pressure on food prices.  According to employers, skilled farm laborers are aging out of the labor pool. The H-2A program is designed to help fill the U.S. labor void and provide legal employment opportunities for migrants.

SB 5438 would make participation in the H-2A program cost prohibitive for Washington farmers and, thus, make it more difficult to complete harvests before food rots in the fields. More importantly, it would rob migrant workers seeking legal employment of the opportunity to find it.

Washington state needs the popular H-2A program to continue its long-standing tradition of providing some of the finest tree fruit in the world. If we want to continue to be the “Apple State,” then we also need to continue to be the state that opens work opportunities to all, and allows the H-2A program to operate without additional costs.