Massie says money for farmers in Iran war supplemental is ‘ironic’

House Massie says money for farmers in Iran war supplemental is ‘ironic’ Comments: by Max Rego - 07/21/26 5:22 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Max Rego - 07/21/26 5:22 PM ET Comments: Link copied

NOW PLAYING

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) called Congress’ move to ask for more than $11 billion for the Agriculture Department (USDA) as part of supplemental funding for the Iran war “ironic” on Tuesday.

“What’s ironic about that is the… bailout for the farmers was necessitated by the war with Iran,” Massie told The Hill outside the House chamber. “They’re trying to compensate them for higher fuel prices and higher fertilizer prices.”

Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, requested nearly $87.6 billion from Congress in a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) last month.

Included in the request is more than $67.1 billion for the Defense Department, as the U.S. and Islamic Republic continue to exchange strikes and abandon the short-lived memorandum of understanding they agreed to last month.

The Trump administration has also asked Congress for $11.1 billion for the USDA. The vast majority of that amount, $10 billion, would go towards “temporary economic assistance for row and specialty crops” planted in crop year 2026.

Just more than $1 billion, meanwhile, would help the department support “agricultural producers who faced damages from winter storms” in late 2025 and early 2026.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins pushed members of the Senate Appropriations Committee to back the supplemental on Tuesday, while noting her department is trying to “free” American farmers from “dependency” on the government.

“It provides a bridge and extends a hand to Americans who need it,” Rollins said of the supplemental, while testifying before the panel alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.

“It buys the nation the security that we need, and it buys us time to deconstruct and then reconstruct a new system, putting our farmers and ranchers first, and to restore the system that originally made America great,” Rollins continued.

The price of fertilizer has spiked amid the war, due to the Iranian military’s restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Under normal conditions, one-third of the global fertilizer trade passed through the waterway, according to the United Nations.

From February to June, the price of nitrogenous fertilizer rose by 23.5 percent, according to an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Dating back more than 50 years, fertilizer prices in June were higher than they were in every month with the exception of 10, analysis shows.

Fuel prices in the U.S. have also risen amid the war, with diesel costing roughly $5.14 per gallon as of Tuesday, about $1.40 higher than a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association.

Massie also noted farmers have dealt with higher prices, particularly with regard to farm equipment, due to President Trump’s tariffs on imports.

“So the solution of this is not to give more money to the war in Iran and more money to the farmers, and then later, more money to Iran and more money to some other industry that’s crumbling because of this war,” said the outgoing lawmaker, who lives on his farm back in Kentucky. “The solution is [to] stop the war.”

Add as preferred source on Google Tags Brooke Rollins Dan Caine Donald Trump Mike Johnson Pete Hegseth Russell Vought Thomas Massie

Comments: Link copied