HR-7938-119
Referred to the Subcommittee on Nutrition and Foreign Agriculture.
Sponsored by Nikki Budzinski (D-IL)
What it does
This bill would direct the Secretary of Agriculture, through the Agricultural Marketing Service, to create a grant program that provides funding to labor unions and membership organizations representing farmworkers, meat processing workers, and grocery workers. Grant recipients would use the funds for stabilization payments to workers affected by natural disasters or other disasters as determined by the Secretary. The bill authorizes $50 million for this purpose and requires a report on outcomes within 4 years of enactment.
Who benefits
Labor unions and membership organizations representing farmworkers, meat processing workers, and grocery workers, which would receive grant funding; individual workers in these sectors who experience income disruption from disasters and receive stabilization payments through their organizations; and potentially rural and disaster-prone communities where food supply chain workers are concentrated.
Who is hurt
Taxpayers who fund the $50 million appropriation; non-unionized or unaffiliated food workers who lack access to a qualifying membership organization or union and thus cannot benefit from the program; other worker sectors facing similar disaster-related income disruption (e.g., construction, hospitality) that are not covered by this program and may view the targeted funding as inequitable.
Supporters argue
Supporters argue that farmworkers, meat processing workers, and grocery workers are essential to the food supply chain yet often lack paid leave or disaster insurance, leaving them financially vulnerable when hurricanes, wildfires, or other disasters disrupt their work. They contend that channeling funds through established unions and membership organizations ensures efficient, targeted delivery of stabilization payments to workers who kept food supply chains running during past crises like COVID-19 and recent hurricanes.
Opponents argue
Opponents argue that the bill creates a narrow, sector-specific benefit funded by all taxpayers while excluding workers in other essential industries who face comparable disaster-related hardship, raising fairness concerns. They contend that channeling federal funds specifically through labor unions and membership organizations, rather than directly to affected workers, could favor certain worker representation structures over others and that the program's vague disaster-determination standard leaves broad discretion to the Secretary of Agriculture with limited statutory guardrails.
Constitutional context
Congress's spending power under Article I, Section 8 allows it to appropriate funds for programs like this grant initiative, and no clear constitutional conflict arises since the program is voluntary, sector-specific, and administered through existing USDA authority rather than compelling private conduct or regulating interstate commerce directly.
Checks and balances
Congress authorizes the appropriation and sets program parameters while delegating implementation and disaster-determination discretion to the Secretary of Agriculture, with oversight exercised through the required 4-year report to congressional agriculture committees.