Does not matter: Walsh urges immigration overhaul — Booker to ‘bring it’ on nutrition

May 03, 2021

With help from Helena Bottemiller Evich

Editor's Note: Weekly Agriculture is a weekly version of POLITICO Pro's daily Agriculture policy newsletter, Morning Agriculture. POLITICO Pro is a policy intelligence platform that combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.

Quick Fix

— Labor Secretary Marty Walsh vowed to work to pass an immigration overhaul, putting a special emphasis on the H-2A program.

— Sen. Cory Booker is planning a major focus on the country's nutrition crisis in his new role on the Senate Nutrition and Specialty Crops Subcommittee.

— Additional farmers have filed lawsuits against USDA and the debt relief direct payments for farmers of color under the Covid relief bill.

HAPPY MONDAY, May 3! Welcome to Morning Ag where your host found this little goat on a boat to be the perfect content pallet cleanser to start the week. Send tips to xbustillo@politico.com and @ximena_bustillo, and follow us @Morning_Ag.

JOIN TUESDAY FOR A CONVERSATION ON SMALL BUSINESSES AFTER COVID-19: About one in six small businesses in the U.S. closed their doors since the pandemic began. The ones that remained open are getting by with fewer employees after laying off workers or a hiring freeze. What is ahead for small businesses in 2021 as they try to weather the ongoing economic uncertainty? And how does President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package intend to support small-business owners? Join POLITICO for a virtual conversation with White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein and Joyce Beatty, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, on what small businesses need to survive and thrive beyond the Covid economic crisis. REGISTER HERE.

DRIVING THE WEEK

WALSH URGES PATHWAY TO CITIZENSHIP: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh virtually joined the "We Are Home" campaign, advocates and immigrant workers on Friday to urge Congress to act on creating a pathway to citizenship for workers in the United States. Walsh also urged for changes of the H-2A guest worker program.

"President Biden has made it very clear. On his first day in office he sent Congress a comprehensive immigration bill," Walsh said. "He supports the Farm Worker Modernization Act to reform the guest worker program. We need to improve the H-2A program to increase protections to farm workers and prevent abuses."

Time for comprehensive overhaul: Walsh said he would push for an immigration bill pass in the Senate. He said he wanted to ensure workers were protected regardless of status, along with establishing a pathway to citizenship, as well as improvements for guest worker programs.

During a roundtable discussion, various immigrant workers spoke to Walsh about their hopes for a pathway to citizenship and improved working conditions during the pandemic.

Rigoberto Arteaga, a dairy worker from Vale, Ore., was one of many "essential" workers on the call. He told Walsh about the lack of protections during the pandemic.

"Secretary Walsh, I ask that you use your position to help agricultural workers and those in the dairy industry have an immigration process," Arteaga said. "I have waited for 30 years for help or assistance to be here legally."

Reality check: Biden's U.S. Citizenship Act has been introduced in the House and Senate but lawmakers have not moved the bill. Meanwhile, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act is still undergoing negotiations in the Senate after passing the House in March but Republicans are firm that they do not support the House version of the bill and are working to make changes.

BOOKER TO TAKE UP NUTRITION: The new chair of the Senate Agriculture's Nutrition and Specialty Crops Subcommittee said he plans to focus on the country's food justice and nutrition problems. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) cited worsening rates of obesity, diabetes and other diet-related diseases — urgent public health problems that disproportionately affect low-income consumers and communities of color.

"I'm bringing it," Booker said of his new subcommittee chair post during a Friday appearance at the North American Agricultural Journalists annual meeting. "I'm going to bring a focus on food justice and the nutrition crisis that is sending generations of our elders to an early death and robbing our children of too much of their precious potential."

"We must urgently rethink the way we approach food and nutrition policy," he said.

White House conference: Booker told reporters he supports the call for a second White House conference on food, nutrition and health. The last conference took place in 1969, under former President Richard Nixon.

Bring back food boxes: Booker said he supports creating a permanent USDA specialty-crop food box program to pay "a fair price" to farmers and deliver fresh food to low-income neighborhoods across the country.

USDA decided recently to suspend the Trump administration's Farmers to Families Food Box program as of May 31, citing a wide variety of errors and complications with the program.

MIDWESTERN FARMERS SUE OVER DEBT RELIEF PAYMENTS: Five more white farmers are suing USDA and the Farm Service Agency, claiming they were prevented from accessing debt relief payments intended for farmers of color under the Covid-19 relief package. The plaintiffs — farmers from Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Ohio — argue they would have qualified for the payments if not for the color of their skin. As with a previous suit, this one too is backed by a conservative cause: the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a statement saying it was reviewing the lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice but there are no plans to halt the payments that benefit farmers of color, according to the Associated Press.

SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TODAY: Power is shifting in Washington and in communities across the country. More people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. The Recast is a twice-weekly newsletter that explores the changing power dynamics in Washington and breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics and policy in America. Get fresh insights, scoops and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country and hear critical new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out, SUBSCRIBE . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel.

Row Crops

— Sen. Bill Cassidy told Fox News Sunday that lawmakers are closer to a traditional infrastructure deal, but that means some priorities will be left on the cutting room floor. POLITICO's Myah Ward reports.

— Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the "Right to Farm" bill into law. Ag groups and environmentalists are at odds on support for the legislation. POLITICO Florida's Bruce Ritchie has more.

— The Washington Post's "Fact Checker" was on NPR this weekend to explain Sen. Tim Scott's long family connections to farming, after a recent article he wrote was attacked by the senator during Scott's rebuttal to Biden's joint address to Congress last week.

— DOJ says Tyson was not directed by the federal government to continue production during Covid-19 outbreaks at facilities even as the company blamed federal guidance for continued operation, The Food Environment Reporting Network reports.

— The demand for chicken sandwiches as well as pandemic supply chain disruptions are driving America's current chicken shortage. The Washington Post has more.

— Farmers are turning to the Biden administration to provide more guidance on how they can afford and achieve the ambitious climate goals. The Wall Street Journal reports.

— The pandemic brought record investment in food and agricultural start-ups, according to CNBC.

THAT'S ALL FOR MA! Drop us a line: xbustillo@politico.com; rmccrimmon@politico.com; hbottemiller@politico.com; gmott@politico.com and pjoshi@politico.com.