The latest from Washington D.C.

DC Photo: Skip, Adobe Stock: Headshot courtesy of AmericanHort

Matt Mika, AmericanHort’s vice president of advocacy and government affairs, spends much of his time communicating with people in Washington D.C. That often means forming relationships with people brand new to Congress.

“You have lots of people on congressional staff that haven’t done a Farm Bill before,” he says. “In the House, you have over 200 members on the floors who haven't voted on a Farm Bill before. What that means is that we have over 200 people that have come to Congress in the last five years. And on the Senate side, you have a lot of new Senators on the committee. It’s really important for us to educate about the importance of the industry.”

Mika adds that right now is an especially busy time in Washington D.C. because next year is a presidential election year. He says that when a sitting president is heading into a reelection campaign (in this instance, President Joe Biden) they always look to be active.

“We’re going to see by the end of the year all of the rules and regulations President Biden and his administration are considering,” he says. “Will they all go somewhere? No. But we have to stay on top of them and follow them and work with elected officials, both Democratic and Republican, to make sure they make sense, are based in science and are attainable.”

Farm Bill updates

Mika says getting a Farm Bill passed in the House and Senate is the No.1 legislative issue for green industries. Usually, he says, a markup is through the committee phase by July. But with a younger Congress, the process is taking longer than usual.

“What we’ve heard is that there will be a draft to the committee by the end of the month,” he says. “Now, they’re likely to do a continued resolution to extend the current Farm Bill through the end of the year that will also play into the government CR.” (Editor’s note: Mika was interviewed by Greenhouse Management on Sept. 7.) A CR, Mika says, would extend the current Farm Bill for a certain amount of time to allow for more negotiations for a new one. It’s the same process, he says, that has and will occur in federal budget negotiations.

For the industries AmericanHort advocates for —greenhouse, nurseries, landscapers, etc. — a specific factor to consider is the plant pest & disease management title that has a lot to do with invasive species. Three other important parts of the Farm Bill, he says, are a research title that funds important research in the various industries, a specialty crop grant and money earmarked for rural development that can be allotted to broadband improvements, as well as H-2A and H-2B funding.

AmericanHort has been working with a bipartisan group of legislators (Ohio Republican Max Miller, California Republican Doug LaMalfa, California Democrat Salud Carbajal and Virginia Democrat Abigail Spanberger) on a mechanized research program aimed at boosting research that helps nursery and greenhouse growers, Mika says.

“Our folks are looking at crop insurance, too,” he adds. “Can they get in it? What’s available to them? There are a few proposals out there we are watching, and we’ll see what comes in the bill.”

Building in protection against natural disasters, Mika says, is also important during this Farm Bill cycle.

“Whether it’s like what we’ve seen in Hawaii with these devastating fires, or these hurricanes and tornadoes and the other fires that have happened, we need to be prepared,” he says. “If our members are hit, they need to have access to disaster relief and get the help they need.”

Labor updates

Mika says they are seeing (and will continue to see) proposals for H-2A and H-2B come into the House and Senate.

“These proposals will help us gauge the appetite of the House and Senate leadership and the committees to go after this and let us figure out what can move through and what can’t,” he says. “Especially in the House. … We saw it there with the fight for Speaker where five groups were fighting for who would be speaker. You have to work with those five groups to get something done. And that’s hard sometimes because you have the Freedom Caucus, which is far right. You’ve got the Republican Study Committee, which is a little more right leaning and then you have the Tuesday Group, the mainstream group and then a group that’s an equal mix of Republicans and Democrats. You have to make all of those groups happy.”

He adds that on a key committee, it’s split between Republicans who say there isn’t a labor shortage that needs to be solved with H-2A and Democrats who defer to union labor.

“In our industries, very few folks are unionized,” he says. “And we have a labor shortage. This is the political reality we have to deal with. You have to figure out how to get the needle through two people who disagree.”

Making the case

Mika says that the current Congressional body skews younger, making the last nine-plus months of advocacy and education extremely important.

“It’s really important to get those new elected officials, and even older ones who have been around for a while, out to the greenhouse, out to the farm, out to the nursery,” he says. “Just seeing it first-hand [is important] because in America, less than 2% of Americans are involved in agriculture. So we’ve just got to educate people on how the system works.”

When elected officials visit farms, Mika says it often unlocks something for the officials by showing them something they may have had a meeting about but can’t fully grasp unless they’ve seen it in person. That logic also includes the many, many staffers working with leaders as well.

An example of a recent site visit, Mika says, is the aforementioned Miller, a freshman Republican representing Ohio’s 7th District and a member of the Freedom Caucus, visiting Willoway Nursery in Avon, Ohio. After the visit, Mika noted that Miller was quoted by Politico as saying that while he is more conservative and wants to limit government spending, agriculture is important to his district, and he needed to vote (and pass) a Farm Bill for the good of his district.

“[Miller] going out and visiting one of our members and spending time at Willoway was key,” Mika says. “I mean, he was there for a good hour and a half, two hours and they had conversations about what works and what doesn’t. And he's only been [in D.C.] for nine months, so this is his first Farm Bill.”

Members advocating for their needs, Mika says, is vital.

“I said this before, but only 2% of the American population is involved in agriculture and even less in the green industries and horticulture,” he says. “Coming to D.C. is huge if you can swing it. Invite state or local leaders to your business and show them what’s going on. Keep up to date on what’s happening on the Hill, too. And email your leaders and send letters in. Plus, every elected person in D.C. has a local office. Talk to them and keep the dialogue going.”