Farm Labor Legislation in DC and Community Wildfire Defense Grants

**A nationwide farm labor shortage is contributing to a flurry of legislative action in Congress this year.

The House Committee on Agriculture has formed a bipartisan

Ag Labor Working Group to study and propose changes to the H-2A temporary work visa program.

Last year, Congress failed to pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, including immigration law reforms. It has been reintroduced this year.

**The USDA announced the application period for the Community Wildfire Defense Grant program.

Now in its second year, the competitive program is designed to assist at-risk communities with planning for and mitigating wildfire risks.

Applications will be accepted for 90 days.

The announcement comes after $197 million was awarded to 99 project proposals across 22 states and seven Tribes during the first year of funding.

**The nation’s average gas price soared 16.5 cents in the last week to $3.72 per gallon, according to GasBuddy.

The national average DIESEL price jumped 15.5 cents, to $3.99 per gallon.

GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan says, “Prices suddenly soared over the last week due to heat-related refinery outages that impacted some of the largest refineries in the country.”

The outages come at a time when summer gas demand peaks and gas inventories slid to their lowest July level since 2015.