The Texas Department of Agriculture will no longer award eligible department-administered grants to businesses that employ H-1B visa holders, Commissioner Sid Miller announced in a release dated October 28, 2026. The release says the policy puts “taxpayer dollars behind Texas workers rather than companies that rely on temporary foreign labor,” and it asks Governor Greg Abbott and every other statewide elected official to adopt similar safeguards across their agencies, grant programs and economic development initiatives.
“Texas taxpayers work hard for their money,” Miller said in the release. “They deserve to know that their tax dollars are being used to create opportunities for Texans—not to subsidize businesses that choose foreign labor while Texans are ready and willing to work.” The release says businesses seeking eligible TDA funding “must meet the department’s new requirements, including restrictions tied to employing H-1B visa holders,” without spelling out what those requirements are beyond the H-1B condition.
Two limits are stated. The eligibility changes do not apply to TDA-administered grant programs operated on behalf of independent boards, commissions or entities that set their own eligibility criteria. And they do not restrict public or private Texas entities from receiving federal grant funds or from taking part in state-funded loan programs the department administers.
The release does not list the affected grant programs, give an effective date, or say how the department will establish whether an applicant employs H-1B workers. Those details are not in the announcement, and a press release is not the rule itself.
For readers, the practical line is where the money is. H-1B is a federal nonimmigrant classification, and a state agency cannot change its terms or anyone’s status; nothing in the TDA announcement does that. What a state grant condition can do is reach employers that use the classification, by making state agriculture and economic development money unavailable to them while they employ H-1B workers. The release also asks statewide offices to review incentive and grant programs, publish more about who receives the money, and “close the gaps” it says let public dollars reach those employers — measures that would widen the effect if other agencies follow.
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