Bill would lower farmworker wage floor, speed visa approvals
H.R. 6847 — Fair Wages for Farmworkers Act · Filed by Mónica De La Cruz (R-TX) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Dec 18, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill changes how the federal government calculates the minimum wage that U.S. farms must pay temporary H-2A visa workers. Instead of using a method that may set wages higher, the bill requires the Department of Labor to use state-level occupational wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It also allows the Department of Homeland Security to begin processing H-2A visa petitions before the Department of Labor finishes certifying that the job cannot be filled by U.S. workers.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism lowers the wage floor for temporary farmworkers by switching to a lower-baseline wage-calculation method and accelerates visa processing before domestic labor protections are verified. The net effect is to reduce labor costs for agricultural employers.
What the text implies
- Concurrent processing of H-2A petitions before labor certification is complete may bypass the statutory requirement to demonstrate no available domestic workers, weakening the protective intent of the H-2A program.
- State occupational wage data may not reflect agricultural-sector-specific wages and could systematically understate the true prevailing wage in farming, compounding the downward pressure.
- Lower H-2A wage floors reduce the cost advantage of hiring domestic workers, potentially accelerating farm consolidation and displacement of U.S. agricultural labor.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
U.S. farmworkers and domestic agricultural labor face downward wage pressure when the minimum wage floor for visa workers is lowered. Concurrent processing of visa petitions before labor certification accelerates visa approvals, further reducing incentive to hire domestic workers at competitive wages.
Who stands to gain
- agricultural employers and farm operators
- large-scale farming operations
Named in the bill
Department of Labor, Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Labor Statistics, H-2A visa program, Immigration and Nationality Act, Code of Federal Regulations section 655.1308
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Dec 18, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Dec 18, 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.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,077 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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