Sen. Grassley questions agricultural tarriffs
Iowa sentator kicks off 2026 visit to 99 counties
HAMBURG, IA – The Fremont County Farm Bureau and the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association organized a stop near Hamburg Wednesday as U.S. Senator Charles Grassley kicks off his 46th annual visit to each of the state’s 99 counties.
The senator’s opening comments focused on guarantees for year-around E15 ethanol and passage of a five-year farm bill, but questions from about 30 cattlemen in attendance quickly turned to rebuilding the cattle herd, the cost of farming and tariffs.
Core policy
Grassley said he is asking U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent why the United States is imposing duties on crop fertilizers like phosphate and anhydrous ammonia from Morrocco and Trinidad when U.S. companies are dominant in those markets and do not need protections. He also questioned tariffs on potash, a fertilizer imported primarily from Canada.
He said the tariffs add to farmers’ production costs.
Grassley: “When I see the government having tariffs on phosphate and anhydrous and potash coming into the United States, it’s quite obvious I’m going to advise to the President to take them off.”
Constitutional authority over tariffs
Grassley said the government should enforce its anti-trust laws and set up a system where the marketplace works in regard to agriculture inputs.
He said a reading of the U.S. Constitution shows that Congress can reclaim authority over tariffs, but he questions whether it’s practical to now sweep away the 1963 and 1974 trade bills that delegated tariff power to the President.
Grassley: “I also was very pessimistic about getting the votes to do it. Not only do you need a majority vote to pass a bill to recapture that, but any president – I don’t care whether he’s a Republican or Democrat – he’s got that power. He’s going to make an argument for the good of the country I’m going to keep that power because I can act faster than Congress can act. So, unless you have a two-thirds vote to override a congressional veto, it’s a very slim margin of getting that power back.”
He said it’s more likely that the courts would limit the authority of the President to put on tariffs than Congress reclaiming its constitutional authority on its own.
He said the administration points to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to show authority for presidential tariffs during an emergency.
Grassley: “It happens that I’m the only member today that was in that Congress in 1977 and I don’t remember anything about giving the President authority on tariffs. The reason I can say that 49 years later is we went back and had the Library of Congress review the debates in 1977 and the reason it must not have anything to with tariffs is it didn’t’ go through the Senate Finance Committee or the House Ways and Means Committee. It was entirely handled out of the foreign affairs committee of the two houses.”
Work collaboratively with Mexico
Grassley said the United States should not import beef to lower prices.
He said, if the United States needs to rebuild its herd by importing live cattle, it should work collaboratively with Mexico to solve the problem of the flesh-eating parasitic maggot known as the New World Screwworm. The parasite is currently keeping Mexican cattle in quarantine.