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Exciting News: Federal Officials Announce Their Participation in NCAE’s Ag Labor Forum

| Press Release, Uncategorized

 

Exciting News: Federal Officials Announce Their Participation in NCAE’s Ag Labor Forum

(Arlington, VA) U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden have confirmed their participation in the National Council of Agricultural Employers’ 2025 Ag Employer Labor Forum. The Forum takes place this December 3-5th at the beautiful and newly expanded M Resort, just outside Las Vegas, NV.

“We are incredibly proud that the regulatory community understands how critical it is to have their participation at this event,” shared Michael Marsh, NCAE’s President and CEO. “America’s farmers and ranchers deserve an engaged community of regulators and policy makers, and we are thrilled to provide this opportunity to our Labor Forum attendees so they can do just that.”

NCAE recently released a blockbuster lineup for the 2025 Labor Forum, reflecting the Council’s fervent commitment to providing members and the wider farming and ranching community with cutting-edge knowledge and resources so that they can make the best business decisions to sustain their agricultural operations, American agriculture, and family farms and ranches for generations to come.

“We are excited,” noted Marsh, “to join with our members and America’s great agricultural community to delve into and discuss the things many employers need to know to protect and keep their farms and ranches successful for this generation and generations we hope to follow. This event has become a cornerstone for America’s agricultural employers, and with all the activity in the community over the past few months, engagement at this event has never been more important.”

“This year’s Forum features a compelling range of topics that have America’s agricultural community excited,” noted Marsh. “Attendees will enjoy our engaging expert sessions and speakers who will guide the audience through deep depths while they examine a wide breadth of agricultural topics.”

This Forum offers an incredible diversity of ag labor leaders and legal experts to unpack the complex regulatory and legislative web in which agricultural employers find themselves.

Day One is all about action: Attendees will learn what’s next for ag employers and how to effectively fight for a brighter future. The essential session, “Canaries in the Coal Mine,” moderated by Ryan Ayres (Director of Human Resources for FirstFruits Farms), features agricultural leaders discussing challenges agricultural employers are experiencing at the hands of out-of-control state governments. Then, Joel Anderson (NCAE Executive Committee Chairman and owner of Anderson Immigration Law) hosts the fireside chat, “Going on Offense,” with Kimberly Hermann (President of Southeastern Legal Foundation) to map out a proactive litigation strategy for farmers and ranchers.

NCAE’s marquee session, “Eye of the Storm,” will take place on Day Two of the Forum. This session will examine the Department of Labor’s recently announced Interim Final Rule (IFR).

This marquee session will bring together a panel with national expertise and insights, including Jamie Fussell (Director of Labor Relations at Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association), Alexandra E. Hill (Assistant Professor at University of California, Berkeley), Chris Schulte Partner at Fisher Phillps), Phil Martin (Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics at University of California, Davis), Samantha Ayoub (Economist at American Farm Bureau Federation), and Shawn Packer (Partner at JPH Law).

Together, the panel of agricultural experts will dissect the impact of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) Interim Final Rule (IFR) and provide their thoughts about what the future holds for the IFR and American agriculture. The IFR, published on October 2, 2025, modifies the methodology used to calculate the AEWR. The Department estimated the new methodology will save American farmers and ranchers $2.46 billion and $17.29 billion over 10 years.

Later that afternoon, attendees will have the option to choose between a variety of engaging breakout sessions that touch on an incredible breadth of topics. Forum sessions include an interactive H-2A compliance workshop, a facilitated discussion focused on taking charge of the agricultural narrative, an examination of the challenges and opportunities that artificial intelligence (AI) present for the agricultural industry, an H-2A Tax Clinic, sessions on best practices and advanced strategies for ag employers, and much, much more.

Attendees of these stimulating sessions, along with many others throughout the Forum, are eligible to receive continuing education credit from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

The blockbuster event will conclude with insights and remarks from even more blockbuster speakers. On the third and final day of the Forum, attendees will have the opportunity to interact with representatives from the federal agencies involved in regulating the agricultural community.

As mentioned above, NCAE’s Labor Forum will proudly host two high-ranking officials representing the Trump Administration. U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer recently confirmed her participation in this critical event. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden will engage with attendees to deliver essential updates and insights that are shaping the future of America’s farming and ranching community.

Likewise, attendees will have the opportunity to have their questions answered by a wide and varied array of representatives with extensive H-2A insights. Dan Armenise, a Policy Advisor with the Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, and team members from Mission Mexico, will engage in an interactive discussion with agricultural employers about State’s role in the H-2A program and what farmers and ranchers can do to facilitate smoother processing. Ruben Rosalez, the Western Region Administrator for Wage and Hour, will also participate.

“With all the ongoing activity in the agricultural labor space,” noted Marsh, “this year’s Forum is a must-attend event.”

Ag Employer Labor PAC – Cultivating Agricultural Champions:

The Ag Employer Labor PAC will host a dinner on December 2, 2025, the evening prior to the start of the NCAE Ag Employer Labor Forum. The PAC aims to grow and cultivate relationships with Members of Congress interested in championing the agricultural community.

Attendees will enjoy a private, upscale, donors-only dinner at Hostile Grape, the luxurious and excusive wine cellar at the M Resort accompanied by wonderful wine, delicious food, live music, spectacular surprises, and a special guest speaker who is sure to enthrall, engage and expand the horizons for all who attend.  This year, attendees will also have a chance to win an exciting array of prizes including an overnight stay, golf, and dinner at a luxurious location and a once-in-a-lifetime chance to ring the cowbell to start the Forum.

The PAC dinner will is held and ticketed separately from the Labor Forum. Attendees of the Forum are encouraged to consider whether they might wish to take part in this exclusive and entertaining evening focused on improving the outlook for ag employers nationwide and cultivating champions for ag labor issues in the Congress.

Individuals may indicate their interest by accessing the PAC Dinner registration page. 

Contributions to the Ag Employer Labor PAC are non-deductible for income tax purposes and may not include contributions made by nor on behalf of a corporation.

Forum Registration & Room Block:

To secure your spot at the Forum and take advantage of discounted room rates at the M Resort, visit NCAE’s Labor Forum registration page today.

About NCAE:

NCAE is the national trade association focusing on agricultural labor issues from the employer’s viewpoint.

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Reality Check: NCAE, Agricultural Community Celebrates as Agricultural Wages Reined in Toward Reality

| Press Release, Uncategorized

 

Reality Check: NCAE, Agricultural Community Celebrates as Agricultural Wages Reined in Toward Reality

(Arlington, VA) The National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE), its members, and the agricultural community nationwide are celebrating a recent announcement from the Department of Labor (DOL) that it will provide much-needed relief to America’s farmers and ranchers. In an Interim Final Rule previewed earlier today, DOL announced that it will take action to rein in agricultural wages, to try and bring them back toward reality.

“For years,” explained Michael Marsh, NCAE’s President and CEO, “federal bureaucrats held a regulatory gun to America’s farm and ranch families’ heads, forcing them to pay an escalating, imaginary wage for farm jobs. These wages were untethered to reality or the market. Likewise, for years, NCAE has fought nonstop against mandated wage rates disconnected from the market and worked to have the Department put an end to this bureaucratic nightmare.”

“After undergoing years of regulatory abuse, often influenced by anti-American farmer activists, the agricultural community is grateful to Secretary Chavez-DeRemer, Deputy Secretary Sonderling, Secretary Rollins, Deputy Secretary Vaden, and the leadership at DOL and USDA for doing what it takes to put America’s farm and ranch families first. Their swift action and attention to the calls for action from the American agricultural community will result in an estimated $2.4 billion dollars returned to family farmers’ and ranchers’ pockets.”

“Farm and ranch families are undergoing a crisis, largely due to out-of-control wage rates, putting family farms, U.S. production, and rural America at risk. At a time where the number of farms is plummeting and the U.S. production is fleeing to our foreign competition, this IFR is a welcome change which we hope to start to turn that tide. Returning control over wages to the market rather than to a bureaucrat’s whimsy gives America’s farmers and ranchers a real chance to compete on the market against foreign competitors.”

In the IFR, DOL explains that “[t]here is ample data showing immediate dangers to the American food supply,” caused by these inherently inflationary wages, which posed, “an imminent risk to the supply of agricultural labor by setting unreasonably high price floors on labor.” This IFR works to address these threats to American agriculture by implementing a methodology it believes results in more “precise market-based price floors that still serves its statutory function of protecting American workers, but also, ensures that American supermarkets and U.S. consumers will have access to safe, affordable and American-grown produce.”

DOL’s IFR comes just weeks after the Department’s 2023 AEWR suffered a long list of legal challenges and losses, including a challenge involving NCAE. These litigation efforts were instrumental in dismantling this wrongheaded regulation. The final death knell for the 2023 rule came when a federal court in Louisiana vacated the DOL’s 2023 Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) Methodology rule which incorporated wage data from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) to set wages for non-range agricultural occupations. DOL subsequently released an announcement that essentially scales the wage rate to a 2010 regulation that defaulted to use of the Farm Labor Survey (FLS) for establishing wage rates. Following that announcement, USDA made the determination to discontinue surveys, reducing paperwork burden, and further administration of the FLS program. USDA’s decision created a regulatory vacuum which this IFR attempts to fill.

The IFR provides farmers and ranchers with a new wage mechanism which agricultural employers are required to pay. The new wage rates rely solely on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics as the source for wages for each state. Under this new rubric, employers are also granted downward compensation adjustments to the applicable AEWRs which employers can apply on wages paid to H-2A workers who receive free housing.

“According to the USDA’s most recent Census of Agriculture from 2022,” noted Marsh, “America lost 140,000 farms and ranches in the five years from 2017 to 2022. At the same time the nation fallowed more than 20 million acres. Already, too many family farms and ranches have been forced to sell farmland, offshore production or otherwise stop operations altogether. A chief reason for this crisis that has crippled rural America has been the exploding, unrealistic cost of labor. The agricultural community is grateful for the Trump administration’s attention to the community’s urgent call for help. With wage rates reined in back toward reality, we are hopeful that America’s family farmers and ranchers can get back to doing what they do best, feeding America and the world. This is an incredible moment for American agriculture.”

NCAE recently announced a special panel, “Eye of the Storm: Investigating the IFR for American Ag,” which the Council will host at the upcoming 2025 Ag Employer Labor Forum, taking place December 3-5 at the M Resort in Las Vegas. Agricultural economists and regulatory experts will unpack what the changes contained in the IFR mean for America’s agricultural community. Members of NCAE and members of the agricultural community at-large are encouraged to register to attend this exciting panel discussion.

“Our members and the agricultural community at-large are excited by the opportunity for much overdue relief from out-of-control Adverse Effect Wage Rates,” stated Marsh. “This is a pivotal moment for the agricultural community – one that could make or break the future for many of America’s farm and ranch families for generations to come. We are excited to unpack this critical rule and so much more with our attendees in Las Vegas.”

NCAE is the national trade association focusing on agricultural labor issues from the employer’s viewpoint.

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NCAE Applauds the Discontinuation of USDA’s Farm Labor Survey

| Press Release, Uncategorized

August 29, 2025

For Immediate Release

Contact: Michael Marsh, President and CEO
(202) 629-9320

NCAE Applauds the Discontinuation of USDA’s Farm Labor Survey

(Arlington, VA) A big week for America’s farm and ranch families has become even bigger. The National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE), its members, and the agricultural community nationwide are celebrating an announcement that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will give much-needed relief to America’s farmers and ranchers.

Earlier today, USDA released a public inspection notice that it intends to discontinue the historically misused Farm Labor Survey (FLS).

“For years,” explained Michael Marsh, NCAE’s President and CEO, “federal regulators forced America’s farm and ranch families to pay an escalating, imaginary wage. For years, NCAE and our members fought to have the Department put an end to misusing the FLS as a wage setting mechanism for H-2A workers.”

“Finally, we have an administration that listens and has the strength to act. We are grateful to Secretary Rollins and the leadership of USDA for doing what it takes to put America’s farmers and ranchers first.”

“This is an exciting announcement and opportunity for America’s rural community to bounce back from years of regulatory abuse. Discontinuing the FLS finally gives America’s farmers and ranchers a real chance to be competitive with foreign competitors. We look forward to working with Secretary Rollins and the leaders at USDA to learn what this change will mean for America’s farm and ranch families.”  

USDA’s notice comes days after a federal court in Louisiana vacated the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) 2023 Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) Methodology rule which incorporated wage data from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) to set wages for non-range agricultural occupations. DOL subsequently released an announcement that essentially scales the wage rate to a 2010 regulation that defaulted to use of the FLS for establishing wage rates.

The DOL’s misuse of the Farm Labor Survey results has allowed wages paid to foreign farmworkers under the H-2A program to forfeit U.S. food production to our foreign competition. This means these workers are paid far more than new recruits into our Armed Services. Equally maddening, the misuse of the FLS escalates wage rates at a pace significantly higher than cost of living adjustments for American retirees collecting their Social Security benefits.

“We are hopeful,” noted Marsh, “that this discontinuation, in conjunction with the Louisiana decision and DOL’s subsequent announcement, will mean, finally, that the market will be allowed to determine wage rates rather than a wrong-headed bureaucratic mandate.  Markets work if the government will let them.”

NCAE is the national trade association focusing on agricultural labor issues from the employer’s viewpoint.

 

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NCAE Urges USDA to Issue Report and Referral on Potential Misuse of Government Grant Monies

| Press Release, Uncategorized

July 8, 2025

For Immediate Release

Contact:          Michael Marsh, President and CEO

                        (202) 629-9320

 

NCAE Urges USDA to Issue Report and Referral on Potential Misuse of Government Grant Monies

 (Arlington, VA) The National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE) is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to issue a report – and, if appropriate, a criminal referral – regarding allegations from farmworkers that they were targeted and coerced by union activists to sign union authorization cards to receive federal grant payments related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Entrusting anti-farmer activists to disburse federal grant funds was a shortsighted mistake made by the previous Administration,” noted Michael Marsh, President and CEO of NCAE.  “What could possibly go wrong with a plan like that? We trust that Secretary Rollins will move quickly to close the book on this matter if the evidence the IG’s investigation uncovers reflects the veracity of the farmworkers’ claims.”

In 2023, and again in 2024, NCAE contacted the USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG) regarding allegations made by farmworkers that organizers with the United Farm Workers (UFW) were coercing or tricking farmworkers into signing “card check” unionization cards as a condition of receiving grant funds under the Farm and Food Workers Relief (FFWR) grant program.  Signing a union card was not a prerequisite for farmworkers receiving the grant.

Last year, NCAE filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that asked USDA to produce information regarding their relationship with UFW Foundation and their “contact persons,” the UFW team. In a letter sent earlier today, NCAE explained that OIG has been investigating these allegations since at least July 23, 2024. At this time, no report has been issued, and no criminal referral has been made to the Department of Justice.

Apparently, the grant recipient, United Farm Workers’ Foundation (UFWF) had selected UFW to assist in disbursement of grants to workers.  UFWF reportedly received $95 million to disburse, but the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by NCAE with the USDA failed to provide any agreements or financial reporting provided by UFWF to the USDA regarding the disbursements made, balances retained, unused funds returned to USDA as undisbursed monies, nor payments made by UFWF to organizations such as UFW. 

In Spring and Summer of 2024, several media outlets reported farmworkers’ claims in California like those received and reported to USDA by NCAE in 2023 that had occurred in New York.

“We are grateful for the responsiveness and compliance from the Agricultural Marketing Service regarding this inquiry,” noted Marsh. “The documents provided thus far by the Agricultural Marketing Service suggest that America’s agricultural community’s concerns, shared by both farmworkers and employers, were frustratingly not shared by the previous Administration. It appears that the dearth of accountability under the previous Administration created a perfect storm under which nefarious behavior might occur.”

“The agricultural community has greatly appreciated Secretary Rollins’ advocacy on their behalf regarding agricultural labor. Likewise, we know that under Secretary Rollins’ leadership, that lack of accountability will not stand.”

NCAE is the national trade association focusing on agricultural labor issues from the employer’s viewpoint.

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NCAE Urges USDA to Investigate Undisbursed Funds to Farmers

| Press Release, Uncategorized

March 27, 2025

For Immediate Release

Contact:       Michael Marsh, President and CEO

                        (202) 629-9320

NCAE Urges USDA to Investigate Undisbursed Funds to Farmers

(Arlington, VA)

In a letter addressed to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, the National Council of Agricultural Employers (NCAE) urges Secretary Rollins to investigate an unexplained halt in disbursement of federal grant funds previously allocated and awarded to farmers to help address critical labor shortages and reduce irregular migration.  

Last year, USDA’s Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot Grant Program (FLSP) awarded $50 million in federal grant funding to 141 awardees in 40 states and Puerto Rico, reaching 177 agricultural operations throughout the U.S. On its website, USDA describes the FLSP as a way to help address labor shortages, mitigate costs associated with the H-2A temporary seasonal visa program, and reduce irregular migration from Northern Central American countries.

In the letter, NCAE shares that FLSP participants report they stopped receiving reimbursements in January or failed to receive any reimbursement. NCAE explains that recipients report being “out-of-pocket for hundreds of thousands of dollars,” adding that some are reportedly borrowing money and on the edge of bankruptcy. NCAE also relayed that, despite repeated attempts, participants report they have not received clarity from USDA on the status of the FLSP funding, and when or whether they will be reimbursed for incurred or future expenses.

“America’s farmers and ranchers who engaged in the FLSP program did so in good faith and with the understanding that USDA would uphold their end of the commitment,” stated Michael Marsh, NCAE’s President and CEO. “Particularly at a time when margins on America’s family farms and ranches are increasingly thin, we are deeply troubled by reports that farmers and ranchers have not received reimbursements for the significant costs incurred as part of their participation in USDA’s Program.”

“While we know,” added Marsh, “it is not USDA’s intent to further strain America’s agricultural community which is already burdened by of several years of regulatory overreach, rising labor and input costs, and unfair foreign competition, USDA’s lack of communication about the status of the FLSP funds is doing just that.”

“We hope that Secretary Rollins and her team will investigate this thoroughly and communicate with recipients promptly so they can get back to doing the work they do best—growing food, fiber and fuel to feed, clothe and power the world.”

NCAE is the national trade association focusing on agricultural labor issues from the employer’s viewpoint.

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