President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that his tariffs on Canada and Mexico would move forward after a 30-day pause. It's something that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said he's "very disconcerted about."
Speaking to the Iowa Farmer's Union on Monday, Grassley promised the money would start flowing again after Trump ushered in a total government freeze, reported the Iowa Capital Dispatch.
As CBS reported, Trump instituted a broad freeze in federal spending, leading to unpaid bills and rotting food in ports. While lawsuits resulted in a judge ordering the government to turn some funds back on, the Supreme Court later stepped in to temporarily maintain the freeze.
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The Iowa Soybean Association said that $11 million in grant money was paused for them due to the freeze. The funds were for those enrolled in the Soil and Water Outcomes fund, WQAD News reported last month.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins promised to release approximately $20 million in funding from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, a release said. However, as Colorado Public Radio reported last week, the Natural Resources Conservation Service grants to farmers are gone.
“Obviously if it was a total dilution, or elimination, of those monies that’d be catastrophic for conservation,” Grassley told the Iowa Farmers Union. “It’d be catastrophic for the family farmers.”
Grassley said he supports Trump's freeze, calling it nothing more than a "review process" for federal funding. He promised that the freezes would be over after 90 days when the process has concluded.
Aaron Lehman, IFU president who moderated the discussion, explained that farmers feel the pain and they need 90 days to come soon.
Grassley promised he's fighting to ensure things get moving in time for corn planting season, which is around April 15-20th. He's speaking directly with the Department of Agriculture, he said.
Last week, however, more than a dozen recently fired USDA employees told Investigate Midwest that after the mass staff cuts, the department was cut off "at the knees."
Members of the IFU feel like ”the rug’s being pulled out from underneath them," said Lehman. They're waiting to find out whether or not signed contracts will be honored.
Then there's the matter of Trump's tariffs. On TruthSocial, Trump promised farmers that they'd make much more money as a result of his tariffs.
Grassley has always been a member of the free trade caucus but up against the new Trump Republican Party, he's in the minority.
“I’m very disconcerted,” Grassley confessed. “ I’m not going to give up speaking about the importance of trade, particularly for agriculture."
He said he wished Trump would consider tariffs in dozens of other countries "where we can make some progress.” Instead, Trump is focusing on the larger countries "where maybe we’ll never have satisfactory trading negotiations."
