I-9 Audits, and New H-2 Bills in the News
Local reports from Minnesota’s Twin Cities metro area suggest a cluster of I-9 audits affecting horticulture businesses is now underway, much like the June, 2018 audits and a high-profile raid that impacted businesses and workers in northern Ohio. AmericanHort has collaborated with our Minnesota Nursery & Landscape Association partner to provide compliance advice. Member employers […]
AmericanHort Advocacy Team Supports State Partner Events
The AmericanHort advocacy team was out and about during the month of June supporting our state association partners’ key events across the country. MNLGA Field Day | Glen Arm, Md. We joined the Maryland Nursery, Landscape and Greenhouse Association at The Perennial Farm and Manor View Farm for MNLGA’s Summer Field Day. Craig Regelbrugge gave […]
Your Input, Please, on Flatheaded Borers
A collaboration of researchers, led by Dr. Karla Adesso at Tennessee State University, needs your insight into flatheaded borer impacts to production. To that end, they created a survey aimed at estimating the incidence and severity of flatheaded borers in fruit, nut, and ornamental tree and shrub production. Ideally, researchers are hoping to pinpoint gaps […]
Preliminary Honey Bee Colony Losses Released
Preliminary results for honey bee colony losses for 2018-2019 estimate losses of 37.7% from October 2018 thru April 2019, the highest level of winter loss since the survey began in 2006-2007. Average reported survey winter loss rate is about 28.8%. The Bee Informed Partnership manages this annual survey and did not yet offer speculation for […]
H-2B and Appropriations
Federal fiscal year 2020 began on October 1. The federal government is currently operating under a temporary spending bill, or “continuing resolution,” that runs through November 21. The annual appropriations process is unpredictable and the House impeachment inquiry could increase the partisan tensions we always face around the annual spending bills. If Congress is unable […]
Trucking Agency Seeks Input on Loading/ Unloading Times
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issued a request for information last month to better understand driver detention times during the loading and unloading of commercial vehicles along with their impact on safety. The request contains seven areas where FMCSA is looking for feedback, including topics such as what they should consider an estimate […]
H-2B Appropriations Update
Congressional Democrats and the White House continue negotiations around a deal to increase the debt ceiling and impose annual federal spending caps. Speaker Pelosi hopes to reach an agreement before Congress goes on recess for the month of August. On July 19, the Speaker rejected an initial offer from the Administration that calls for $150 […]
Agricultural Trucking Relief Act Introduced in Senate
Senators David Perdue (R-GA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced the Senate companion bill to the Agricultural Trucking Relief Act (S. 2025) at the end of June. The legislation specifically adds horticulture and floriculture to the definition of “agricultural commodity” as it pertains to transportation policy. Confusion has persisted as to what is considered an “agricultural […]
Update On Current Immigration-Related Workplace Enforcement Initatives And Practical Compliance Advice
Current Developments AmericanHort offers the following updated guidance with regard to enforcement actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for immigration-related workplace compliance. This update comes at a moment of extraordinary transformation in immigration enforcement. The change in the preceding 4 years since the most […]
Ag Secretary Perdue Announces Agency Moves to Kansas City
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has announced that the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the Economic Research Service (ERS) divisions will be relocated out of the Washington, D.C. metro area to the Kansas City region. A cost-benefit analysis of the relocation was also released that cites an estimated annual savings around $20 […]