Tariffs and the war with Iran have not been helpful to Iowa farmers, driving up prices in various areas, especially fertilizer, as the Strait of Hormuz has been restricted to fully shut down off and on since Feb. 28.
A large amount of fertilizer comes through the strait.
U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley spoke with Mississippi Valley Publishing and Ethan Hewett of KMA Broadcasting out of Shenandoah about easing prices for farmers as well as other topics.
Grassley said there is legislation in the works that is aimed at giving the Secretary of Agriculture more authority when it comes to supplies of fertilizer. That would include policing supplies, monitoring price, and making sure a competitive marketplace is working on keeping prices down.
The senator said there shouldn’t be any tariff on fertilizer and ingredients for it, when the company Mosaic has has about an 83% control of the supply of phosphate, used in fertilizer. He said they don’t really need protected by a duty.
The congress has moved to take tariffs off of fertilizer projects from Morocco to try and help the cost situation.
Tariffs are also supposed to come off certain farm equipment like combines, to hopefully help lower the prices on those items as well.
Grassley said he was glad to see that. He said the tariff changes will help.
“So anything that gets those prices down can make the farmer happy,” he said.
Grassley said input prices is something he hears a lot about from Iowans, mostly concerns about diesel and fertilizer prices.
Shoring up the corn market can also make farmers happy, and it seems Congress is closer than ever before to making E-15 gasoline available across the country on a year-round basis.
Grassley said the U.S. House of Representatives passed an act to allow for the year-round sale; now it is up to the Senate to pass something.
He said he has had conversations with key leaders and also considers himself as a leader on the issue. He said there’s some discussion on making the issue a standalone bill.
The concern he has with that is, this is an election year and some senators may not be on board with a bill like that. The Senate may also look at including it in a farm bill, defense bill or some other “must pass” bill, Grassley said.
He said it will be a big victory for farmers when all states can sell the gas all year. Several states, including Iowa, have had waivers in recent years to let E-15 be at stations all year, but this would mean those waivers would not need to be obtained on a yearly basis.
Hewett asked the senator for a reaction on Wednesday’s developments in the war with Iran; one person had been killed and several injured along with an airport being closed after the Iranian attack.
Grassley said he is surprised that negotiations appear to be continuing, despite some military actions continuing. He said he hopes that the situation is resolved and we can see prices start to come down.
Getting oil prices down would lead to lowering of gasoline and diesel prices, and hopefully ease the price on goods Americans need, like groceries.
The conflict ending should, as was mentioned before, lower fertilizer prices, too.
A story in the Burlington Hawk Eye and Fort Madison Daily Democrat recently reported that Dr. Mike McCoy, CEO and president of Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center, told the Fort Madison Rotary members that the “One big beautiful bill” is going to cause the health system to see between $35 million and $40 million less in revenue, starting in about 2028.
Grassley said he didn’t know the details on the company (SEIRMC), but could comment on why changes were made.
He said more than six million people have Medicaid and also are signed up for coverage in the Affordable Care Act, and he said they don’t need both. He said there are billions of dollars being wasted and a lot is going to the insurance companies and not helping people get the services they need.
He said there’s also people who are signed up for Medicaid in multiple states.
Grassley said while he supports the programs for people who can’t help themselves, the government needs to cut down on the wasted money in the system.
These policies don’t begin for a few years, and he claimed that is to make sure that, if the Congress made a mistake, they can make changes before the policies begin.
He mentioned the $50 billion set aside for rural healthcare and that Iowa has gotten $209 million, with $79 million distributed this year. He said one thing that has helped rural healthcare do is buy equipment they couldn’t afford and recruit additional staff.