Rep. Salud Carbajal Challenges Sec. Rollins on SNAP Cuts and Farm Labor

Reopening USDA Offices

• 👏 Salud Carbajal thanks Secretary Rollins for reopening eight out of nine USDA offices in California that were previously closed, acknowledging the chaos and negative impact this had on farmers.

Farm Labor Shortages and Immigration Enforcement

• 🚜 Carbajal highlights the labor shortage as a major issue for growers in his district, the Central Coast of California, where agriculture is the number one industry.
• 😟 He expresses concern over the administration's intensified deportation efforts, which have created fear and uncertainty within the agricultural labor force, citing a statement from the Ventura County Farm Bureau.
• 🗣️ Secretary Rollins acknowledges the labor question as significant, noting the unsustainable wage disparity between farm labor in Texas ($23/hour) and Mexico ($2/hour).
• 🤝 The administration recognizes the need for legal immigrants and is working to address labor shortages, with President Biden emphasizing the need to fix the H2A program in partnership with the Labor Secretary and Congress.

H2A Program Reform Efforts

• 🏛️ Carbajal inquires about the progress of H2A program reforms and administration support for bipartisan legislation like the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.
• 💬 Secretary Rollins states that real reform must come from Congress but assures that the administration is open to helping and actively working with the Department of Labor and the White House to address these challenges.

Proposed Cuts to Nutrition Programs

• 🍎 Carbajal questions how proposed cuts to nutrition programs like TFAP and SNAP benefit growers, especially since farmers produce the fruits and vegetables for these programs.
• 💰 Secretary Rollins states that USDA spends about $400 million a day on 16 nutrition programs, claiming up to 30% of that is fraud, waste, and abuse, and noting the increase in SNAP recipients from 17 million to 42 million.
• ❌ Carbajal disputes the fraud claim, stating that fraud is 1% or less, and requests to compare data with the Secretary.