The National Cotton Council has set the meetings for the Farm Bill Updates recently passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill. Flyers for each state are linked below. Please try to attend at least one of these meetings and help get the word out to your producers about these meetings. We understand these conflict with our state meetings but there should be ample opportunity to get to one of these meetings. We thank the NCC for doing these informative programs.

DSF

Late yesterday, the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana issued a permanent injunction and vacated the 2023 AEWR Rule for the H-2A program. This is the rule that changed how truck drivers and supervisors (and several others) minimum wages are calculated using the OEWS Survey.

The law that created the H-2A program says that the wages used in that program cannot have an Adverse Effect on the wages of domestic workers. The Department of Labor (DoL) has determined that the USDA Farm Labor Survey (FLS) average wage would be a floor for wages and anything below that would have an adverse effect.

In 2023 they went beyond that and with the new AEWR Rule it created a core “Big Six” jobs that were still governed by the USDA FLS but anything outside the Big Six would have the Adverse Effect Wage Rate set by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Wage Survey (OEWS). This meant that any job not covered by the FLS, would have the AEWR calculated based on data that was largely non-agricultural in nature.

In our world, the most common jobs that would fall outside of the FLS big six were truck drivers and front line supervisors. The 2023 rule significantly increased the wages for these two classifications. This also forced folks to have to have separate contracts for the truck drivers and supervisors from the rest of the crew since the wage for the full contract was the highest job description in the contract AND it created a situation that if that truck driver came in and did any job on the H-2A contract, all the other H-2A’s got that higher wage for that pay period.

The Court’s action last night tossed the 2023 rule completely and the H-2A program to revert to the Farm Labor Survey only. TO BE CLEAR THIS APPLIES TO NEW CONTRACTS THAT GO IN AFTER 8/27/2025. Any contracts in the process or approved already are still subject to the 2023 AEWR rule. The only H-2A AEWR starting with any new contracts will be the FLS derived AEWR… GA, AL, SC – $16.08; FL – $16.23; NC and VA – $16.16 for 2025.

The National Council of Agriculture Employers and others are also suing for the removal of the FLS as well. The argument is that there has never been a justification for use of the FLS as the wage floor and that underlying premise of an adverse effect has not been demonstrated, particularly when no one is applying for these jobs. This action along with work in Washington is ongoing.

This is great news and we applaud the work of NCAE and the other parties in this suit as well as Secretary Chavez-DeRemmer for her understanding of the detrimental effect of the 2023 Rule.

DSF

For a number of decades, the USDA and the National Cotton Ginners published a summary of the cost of ginning. That survey and paper were published every three years. In the past few years, while the paper is published every three years, the NCGA and USDA are collecting data every year. They moved the survey to an online version (although paper is still available) and allow gins to use the tool to track their own data year after year.

The Southeast has been historically low in participation for this survey. So low, in fact, this year we risk not having our information included in the national data. We need YOUR help in getting our data to NCGA and USDA to get accurate data for the WHOLE country.

Recently I was contacted by a state legislator in one of our states. They are potentially forming a committee to look at the cost of insurance in their state. This legislator represents a rural district with a few gins in it and they wanted to know how the increase in insurance was affecting the cost to farmers. I had to poll a few gins I knew would put information together form me to give them accurate and real numbers. I couldn’t match that with other parts of the southeast because there’s very little data in the NCGA database.

Please take some time to fill out the survey. Once you create an account, you can stop and come back and fill it out piecemeal if you like. OR you can download a paper copy and send it to Harrison at the NCGA. The benefit of creating an account is that you are able to go back and look at your old data to see how things have changed over time.

We need your help. Go to www.cottonsurvey.org and begin the process. It will really help the industry as a whole. Individual gin’s information is kept confidential.

The Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association (GFVGA) has once again put together an outstanding Agricultural Labor Forum. This year’s forum will be held September 16 and 17 in Tifton, Georgia. This is a jam packed two days of information on H-2A, MSPA, Labor Housing, OSHA and much more.

If you’re interested, please follow the link below. The program has recently been posted and there are a lot of knowledgable speakers on the program. Thanks to Chris Butts and the crew at GFVGA for allowing us to invite our members to this very good ag labor conference.

https://www.georgiaaglaborforum.com

On August 21, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, announced a pause of issuance of visas for commercial truck drivers. The pause is being done “to conduct a comprehensive and thorough review of screening and vetting protocols used to determine their qualifications for a U.S. visa,”.

This is following the video of the apparently illegal truck driver from India that obtained a CDL in California. He was unable to pass a 12 question English proficiency test and could not read or understand many road signs. As I understand it, he made an illegal U-Turn on the Florida turnpike causing a minivan to crash into and under the truck trailer killing all in the van.

This is about all we know… with the exception of a few news outlets that are reporting that the pause concerns H-2B, E-2 and EB-3 Visas. The State Department has not said whether or not H-2A visas are affected. We are hoping to hear more regarding clarification that H-2A visas won’t be held up under this pause soon.

Following a 2023 rule change, the Heavy Duty Truck Driver classification was no longer able to fall into the “Big Six” job classification for the application of the standard AEWR. Instead they needed to be split out onto separate contract and have the OEWS wage applied as AEWR. This puts these contracts in a bit of jeopardy under this pause. The State Department Officials may not know that there are Truck Drivers in the H-2A program….which is fine.

We also do not know what the outcome of the “comprehensive and thorough review” will look like. Does this mean a recommendation to change the visa programs in some way…It is possible that the drivers must pass a English Proficiency test before they can work for a US company… It may mean minor changes. It could be no changes at all.

Southeastern Cotton Ginners opposed the changes to the AEWR that split truck drivers out.

At this point we advise you proceed with the expectation that you’ll get your drivers but understand this can change quickly. It could mean additional screening at the consulate. Whatever happens, whether you’re bringing in drivers with the “Licencia Federal de Conductor” license or getting the drivers to obtain a CDL once they are here on H-2A visas, I would recommend working to get them as proficient in the basics of English as possible and make sure they understand and can explain road signs.

More to Come…..

There were quite a few changes to farm law contained in the One Big Beautiful Bill. To help navigate these changes the National Cotton Council (NCC) is holding several Farm Bill Education Meetings across the cotton belt over the next few weeks. While all the dates and locations are still getting firmed up, there will be at least 18 meetings in the Southeast. The list below is still tentative but I would mark your calendars to go to at least one. Please let your producers know about these meetings. Without good knowledge, farmers could leave money on the table and not make the best decisions.