Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he believes congress will have to act to provide the full amount of federal payments to farmers that President Trump has promised to make up for trade-related losses.
“I don’t think he has the authority to use tariff money,” Grassley said this morning during a conference call with Iowa reporters. “That goes in the treasury and once it goes in the treasury, it’s got to be appropriated by congress.”
Grassley said there’s not enough money in the USDA’s budget today to fund the trade disruption payments the Trump Administration has planned. “I had a discussion with one of the cabinet members Monday and this very subject came up,” Grassley said. “…They’re thinking about spreading it out over two tranches, use the money that’s available now and then congress gets done appropriating money and supplements the Commodity Credit Corporation, they’d do the remaining of the $10-14 billion.”
American farmers got more than $22 billion in trade disruption payments in 2019, during Trump’s first administration, after China scaled back U.S. commodity purchases. Amid the current trade stand-off between the two countries, China has stopped buying U.S. soybeans.
Grassley has said fertilizer prices are another “shockwave” hitting farm income and Grassley has been calling for a rollback of U.S. tariffs on fertilizer imports. “I don’t have any resolution or opinion from the executive branch where I’ve expressed both in interviews like this and by Twitter and in statements to the cabinet people,” Grassley said this morning.
According to the American Farm Bureau, the U.S. imported 97% of the potassium fertilizer farmers used in 2024 and nearly all of it came from Canada. There’s now a 10% tariff on potassium fertilizer imports from Canada.