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Floor Speech

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Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I rise to introduce the Supporting Farm Workers' Mental Health Act of 2023. This bill would ensure that the Farm and Ranch Assistance Network serves the behavioral health needs of farm workers.

The Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network is a transformative program that addresses the mental health needs of farmers, ranchers, and those engaged in agricultural occupations. While grants can be used to serve farmworkers, farmworkers are not explicitly identified as population of interest, despite their unique health needs.

Farmworkers face significant barriers to care, including a shortage of culturally competent providers and low health literacy in addition to the challenges associated with accessing healthcare in rural areas. Nineteen percent of farmworkers reported symptoms of anxiety, and 14 percent reported feeling depressed, according to a recent University of California, Merced study.

The Supporting Farm Workers' Mental Health Act of 2023 would amend the Farm and Ranch Stress Act of 2023 would amend the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network to explicitly include farmworkers as an eligible population and ensure peer-to-peer mental health services are an allowable grant activity. Both changes will update the program to reflect our agricultural workforce's behavioral health needs.

Farmworkers feed our Nation. It is our responsibility to ensure they have access to behavioral health care they need.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact this important initiative as quickly as possible. ______

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