[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 129 (Thursday, August 6, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4519-S4520]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. PADILLA (for himself, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. 
        Blumenthal, Ms. Cortez Masto, Ms. Warren, Mr. Schiff, Mr. 
        Markey, Mr. Booker, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Gallego, Ms. Alsobrooks, Ms. 
        Rosen, and Mr. Lujan):

[[Page S4520]]

  S. 5304. A bill to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to 
provide increased labor law protections for agricultural workers, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions.
  Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of the 
Fairness for Farm Workers Act, which I am reintroducing today.
  Farmworkers feed our Nation. This is especially true in California--
the agricultural heart of the Nation. California is the most successful 
State in agricultural production and has the largest population of 
farmworkers. In fact, nearly half of the country's vegetables and over 
three-quarters of the country's fruits and nuts are grown in 
California.
  Farmworkers put food on the tables of millions of Americans despite 
working through extreme weather conditions, injuries, disasters, 
pandemics, and more. Yet farmworkers have been unjustly excluded from 
labor laws. The time to address these inequities is now.
  While the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act established Federal standards 
for minimum wage and overtime pay, the law excluded millions of 
domestic and agricultural workers--workers who were and remain 
overwhelmingly people of color. In 2016, California recognized the need 
to provide farmworkers overtime protection. The California overtime 
law, which ensures farmworkers will have an equal right to overtime 
pay, serves as the model for this Federal bill.
  Farmworkers in California and across the Nation deserve an end to 
discrimination in labor laws. We must undo the discriminatory exclusion 
of farmworkers by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act.
  That is why I am proud to introduce this bill, which would improve 
the lives of farmworkers and their families, create equity in our food 
system, and benefit farming communities as the increased wages are 
spent in local businesses.
  This bill will gradually implement overtime pay over the course of 4 
years and bring greater equity to the American agricultural industry 
and greater prosperity to historically marginalized workers.
  I want to thank Congresswoman Grijalva for introducing this bill with 
me, and I hope our colleagues will join us to provide a measure of 
long-overdue fairness for our Nation's farmworkers.
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