If you’ve ever bought a cantaloupe at the local farmers market, picked up a watermelon for a Fourth of July cookout, or poured milk over your kids’ cereal before school, you’ve seen the work of Indiana agriculture up close.

What many people don’t see is how hard it has become to find the workers needed to grow, harvest and care for the products families count on every day.

That is why Congress needs to pass H.R. 9535, the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act.

Finding dependable agricultural labor is not a new problem. Farmers have been dealing with labor shortages for years, while Washington has kicked the issue down the road. It’s been 40 years since Congress last passed major agricultural labor reform. In that time, farming has changed, but our labor system has not kept up.

Here in Indiana, that disconnect is real. Our farmers grow fruits and vegetables, raise livestock and operate dairies that need dependable help day in and day out. Crops don’t wait when labor falls short. Neither do animals.

Many farmers rely on the H-2A visa program to hire the agricultural workers they need, but the current system is expensive, slow and built mostly for seasonal agriculture. Use of the H-2A program is already up 17% for 2026 while fewer than 0.07% of those jobs received a domestic applicant. That tells you something important: farmers are not passing over willing American workers. They just aren’t applying.

The current H-2A program also comes with steep costs. Farmers must pay for housing, transportation, paperwork and government-mandated wages. One major problem is the wage formula known as the Adverse Effect Wage Rate. Over the last decade, that wage rate has risen by 60%, compared to 49% growth in private-sector wages. Farmers can’t just raise prices to make up for the difference. We sell into markets where the price is often set for us.

The Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act would help control labor cost spikes by capping year-over-year wage increases and stopping mid-contract wage changes. It would also modernize the application process and create a simpler system for farmers and workers to navigate.

Just as important for Indiana, the bill would expand access for year-round agriculture, including dairies and livestock operations.

There have been some loud voices that accuse this bill of granting “amnesty.” It does not. Amnesty is a political talking point. This bill is about legal workers, legal visas and a more dependable legal process for the farms that feed this country. It does not erase the law. It strengthens a lawful system that agriculture desperately needs.

This is not a partisan issue. It is a food issue, an economic issue and a rural community issue. In Indiana, we know that food security means national security, and if Congress wants to support American-grown food and protect family farms, it needs to act.

Hoosier farmers are not asking for a shortcut. We are asking for a system that works.

For the sake of my farm and farms like mine that depend on reliable agricultural labor, this reform can't wait another 40 years. Pass the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act.

About the author: Brady Mouzin is a fourth-generation farmer from Vincennes, Indiana. His family grows corn, soybeans, wheat, and a wide variety of specialty crops including watermelon, cantaloupe, sweet corn, pumpkins and squash. The Mouzins have used migrant labor in some capacity for about 30 years and have been using the H-2A program for a little over 10 years. When they started, they hired 12 workers, now they employ 163 directly through the program and another 150-200 via Farm Labor Contractors who also use the program.