Rollins defends tax policies, calls for domestic fertilizer

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(The Center Square) - Brooke Rollins, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, on Thursday defended tax policies to support farmers and called for more domestic manufacturing of fertilizer amid the conflict with Iran.

At a hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Rollins estimated more than two million family farms have been saved through the exemption of federal estate taxes. The Working Families Tax Cuts Act doubled the exemption for estate taxes to $15 million for individuals and $30 million for married couples, allowing farms to avoid estate taxes over certain thresholds.

“No one has done more for the American farmer and rural America than President Trump has done these last two years,” Rollins said. “We doubled the death tax exemption.”

Rollins said federal estate taxes, or “death taxes,” have previously crippled American farmers and caused family farms to shut down. She estimated deregulatory efforts have saved $212 billion for farmers since the beginning of the administration.

“We can and we will continue building on the progress that has already been made,” Rollins said.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., pushed back on the optimism Rollins projected. She said she is concerned about the effect of deregulation on conservation practices. She criticized the USDA’s efforts to relocate field offices across the country.

“We are asking for transparency and an open dialogue with the shared goal of ensuring the USDA is efficient and effective in its mission,” Klobuchar said.

Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., celebrated the Trump administration tariff and trade policies. He said the policies have improved agricultural yields.

Rollins estimated a 35% increase in corn production; 10% increase in dairy; 100% increase in sorghum; 11% increase in ethanol and soybean production up 129%.

“This is what farmers want. They don’t want to farm for a check from the government,” Rollins said. They want a farm to be able to sell their goods on an open market that is fair.”

Since the conflict in Iran began, research from the University of Illinois estimated fertilizer prices surged from around $800 per ton before the conflict to $1,100 per ton, driven by the global energy crisis and closure of the Strait of Hormuz.  

Rollins called for greater support from Congress for domestic fertilizer production to lower prices. She said the department is working to return phosphate and ammonia manufacturing to the United States.

Klobuchar said Rollins could use the Commodity Credit Corporation, the financial wing of the USDA, to fund the reshoring projects. However, Rollins pushed back and said the loan rate has not been updated for more than 80 years.

She said the CCC is not an adequate tool to rely on for planned investment of domestic fertilizer manufacturing.

“What is left in the CCC right now we’re going to need to meet the obligations of the working families tax cut act,” Rollins said.

Democrats on the committee slammed the Trump administration for rising fertilizer prices. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said Trump’s tariff policies and the conflict in Iran have driven up prices.

“I am really concerned about the well-being of agriculture in this country where farmers have to pay more than they're getting paid for the crop that they make,” Welch said.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said policies of the Biden administration first drove the spike in fertilizer prices, before Trump’s tariff policies or the conflict in Iran broke out. He blamed foreign competition for driving up prices in the industry.

“At the end of the day we have got to save the people that make things in this country,” Tuberville said. “Let's tear up the hell out of people that are shipping in stuff that we can't undercut.”