Congress expands cheap farm labor visa, undercuts U.S. workers' wages
H.R. 4367 — Bracero Program 2.0 Act · Filed by Mónica De La Cruz (R-TX) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 14, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill expands and streamlines the H-2A temporary agricultural worker visa program by creating an online portal for employer petitions, lowering the wage floor to state minimum plus $2/hour, extending work authorization to one year, and piloting a "portable" visa allowing workers to move between registered farms within a state without employer sponsorship. It also extends H-2A eligibility to greenhouse and indoor farm work year-round, and mandates GAO reports on program integrity and worker protections.
Why we flagged it
The bill's primary operative mechanism is to lower the wage floor for temporary agricultural workers and reduce employer compliance friction, directly benefiting agricultural employers at the expense of U.S. farm workers' wages and working conditions. The framing as 'reform' and the inclusion of worker-protection reporting requirements mask the core function: expanding and cheapening the temporary labor supply.
What the text implies
- The 'portable' visa pilot (Section 4) removes the employer-specific visa tie that traditionally gives workers leverage to report abuse; workers can be terminated and replaced within 60 days, creating a precarious labor market where reporting violations risks deportation.
- The $2/hour wage floor (Section 3(g)) is set at state minimum wage plus $2, which in many agricultural states is $7.25 + $2 = $9.25/hour—below the prevailing wage in many regions and below what U.S. workers would accept, directly undercutting domestic labor market rates.
- Greenhouse and indoor farm work (Section 5) is now eligible year-round, not just seasonally, effectively converting permanent agricultural jobs into temporary visa positions, reducing permanent employment opportunities for U.S. workers.
- The 10,000-worker cap on portable visas (Section 4(b)(2)(B)) is a pilot ceiling, not a permanent limit; successful pilot results could lead to unlimited expansion of this lower-wage, lower-protection visa category.
- GAO reports (Sections 6–7) are required but have no enforcement mechanism; findings of wage suppression or worker abuse do not trigger automatic program suspension or reform.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
U.S. agricultural workers face downward wage pressure and reduced bargaining power as employers gain easier access to a larger pool of temporary workers willing to accept lower wages. The portable visa pilot removes employer-specific protections, allowing workers to be cycled between farms with minimal oversight, while the $2/hour wage floor is below many regional prevailing wages and offers no protection against wage suppression in low-wage agricultural markets.
Who stands to gain
- agricultural employers (reduced labor costs, streamlined hiring, lower wage obligations)
- large-scale farming operations (portable visa model favors employers with multiple registered farms)
- agricultural labor contractors (expanded market for temporary worker placement)
Named in the bill
Department of Homeland Security, Department of Labor, Department of Agriculture, Department of State, State Workforce Agencies, Agricultural employers, H-2A workers, U.S. farm workers, Government Accountability Office (GAO)
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Republicans.
- Jul 14, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 14, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
3 lobbying clients named this bill on 6 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,750,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 25 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 61% of bills with at least one filing.
Mónica De La Cruz, the sponsor, reported $759,099 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Cox Enterprises Inc. — $1,320,000 on 2 filings
- Vanteo Fka Bdv Solutions LLC — $350,000 on 2 filings
- Cox Enterprises, Inc. — $80,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (12,277 characters) on Sep 27, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 15,316 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-27.
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