Grassley, Ernst, Group of 68 Lawmakers Urge Interior Secretary to Add Phosphate to Critical Minerals List, Stabilize Fertilizer Markets

Grassley, Ernst, Group of 68 Lawmakers Urge Interior Secretary to Add Phosphate to Critical Minerals List, Stabilize Fertilizer Markets

BUTLER COUNTY, IOWA - U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and a lifelong family farmer, joined fellow committee members Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), alongside 65 of their House and Senate colleagues, in a bipartisan, bicameral letter urging U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to add phosphate - a critical fertilizer ingredient - to the U.S. Critical Minerals List.

The lawmakers state the designation would lower input prices for farmers and help safeguard America's food security. They also note it would bring phosphate production back to the United States, strengthen supply chains and reduce America's reliance on countries like China.

"Phosphate, like potash, is indispensable to global food production and U.S. agriculture. It has no substitutes in farming, and disruptions in supply have immediate and far-reaching consequences for American producers, food prices, and national security," the lawmakers wrote. "Farmers across the country are already experiencing the impacts of market volatility and supply pressures tied to phosphate availability."

"Given phosphate's central role in our economy and its clear vulnerability to supply disruptions, we strongly urge that it be immediately reexamined and added to the 2025 Critical Minerals List. You have the authority to make this designation, and doing so would reflect both the essentiality of phosphate in American food production and the systemic risks our farmers face from market disruptions created by the concentrated foreign supply," the lawmakers continued.

The lawmakers thanked Secretary Burgum for including potash on the draft 2025 list of Critical Minerals following a letter from Grassley and Ernst urging the action in April.

In addition to Grassley, Ernst and Slotkin, the letter was signed by U.S. Sens. John Boozman (R-Ark.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.). In the House of Representatives, the letter is led by U.S. Reps. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) and Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.).

Background

Grassley and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) reintroduced the Fertilizer Research Act to shed light on market factors driving the cost of fertilizer by requiring the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to conduct a study on competition and trends in the fertilizer market to determine their subsequent impacts on price.

During the Biden administration, Grassley pressed Attorney General Garland to investigate anti-competitive activity and market manipulation in the fertilizer industry and this Congress urged President Trump to exclude potash under any proposed tariff regime.

In 2022, Grassley joined a letter urging then-U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to develop a strategic plan for the long-term stability of the fertilizer trade. He also called on then-President Biden to reverse policies that drove fertilizer prices even higher.

Full text of the letter can be found HERE.

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