Legislation and policies are constantly evolving in the government affairs space, which is why it is critical to stay informed and engaged.
“Being informed is really simple,” says Andrew Bray, NALP senior vice president of government relations and membership. “Sign up to get The Advocate. Read stories that go on The Edge that are related to advocacy. That’s step one.”
Bray also encourages landscape professionals to get involved in the Advocacy Ambassador Program and attend NALP’s fly-in events.
Below are some of the main areas of concern Bray anticipates will impact landscape companies next year.
H-2B and Immigration Reform
The biggest challenge landscape company owners can expect will revolve around the release of additional H-2B visas. Bray says while some in the Trump administration understand the value of the H-2B visa program, part of his supporter base adamantly opposes the idea of people from other countries coming to temporarily fill open jobs.
“We’re fighting that uphill battle internally, and I believe this fight will wage on well into 2026,” he says.
In the past, there has been an announcement of the additional visas being released in November or December. Bray predicts this time the announcement may not come until Q1 and if that is the case, the number of additional visas released will be reduced as well.
While it will be a challenging environment for H-2B next year, it also opens up the opportunity for broader immigration reform.
“The reason why is for a decade whenever you want to have a conversation about immigration reform, Republicans would say, ‘Well, let’s fix the southern border. Let’s stop this illegal flow of immigration and once we do that, we have a conversation,’” Bray says. “So, once you’ve said that for 10 years, and then the leader of the party declares in April of 2025 that he’s won and that the border is secure, those people have to start coming to the table a little bit.”
Bray adds that Republicans are also very motivated to codify as much as possible, so much of what President Trump has achieved through executive orders cannot be immediately undone under a new administration.
Bray acknowledges that ICE raids will continue next year, and NALP is available as a support mechanism for the industry members.
“We want to do the best we can to support all of our members and all of the members of the landscape industry to make sure they have the right information, and they’re prepared to react to possibly unforeseen encounters,” Bray says.
The best way to handle these interactions with ICE is to be prepared and ensure compliance.
Possible Pesticide Preemption
With the recent government shutdown, the passing of the Farm Bill was delayed. Bray believes this will pass in January. He cautions that another government shutdown will prevent any legislation from being passed.
If the Farm Bill does pass in January, the provision for pesticide preemption at the state level will be included in this legislation.
“That’s been our Holy Grail of provisions for many, many years,” Bray says. “We don’t like it when a state says Montgomery County, Maryland, you can ban pesticides. If a state wants to decide to ban pesticides, which we vehemently oppose, we would rather have that debate at the state level with the expertise of state agencies and not local governments that are purely legislating on fear and emotion.”
State-Level Governance
At the state level, Bray predicts it will be a tough space in certain states in 2026.
“I think that the blue wave that may be coming has a lot of momentum and energy,” Bray says.
He says blue states will likely attempt to pass negative provisions around pesticides, gas-to-electric, or water usage next year. While Bray anticipates another round of legislation targeting irrigation and drought restrictions, the NALP government affairs team has been able to pass a bill out of committee in Utah that establishes what constitutes as water-wise landscaping.
“Within that, we’re trying not to demonize turf anymore,” Bray says. “We’re trying to promote green. We’re trying to promote canopy, which is trees and shrubs, but we’re also promoting the right types of turf, the right types of trees, and using the right type of irrigation, which we call smart irrigation and smart technologies. We hope that this builds a marker to kind of shift the paradigm away from getting rid of green.”
