Rollins Senate fertilizer hearing testimony on April 22, 2026 left senators from both parties with more questions than answers on one of the most pressing issues facing American agriculture this spring. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s agriculture subcommittee, chaired by Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota, and told lawmakers an “all-of-government approach” to the fertilizer price crisis is nearly ready to announce. She said she is on daily calls with administration officials and fertilizer company CEOs. But she declined to reveal specifics, saying only that “really good news” is coming and that it could potentially include funding.
“The fact that we have offshored so much of our fertilizer over the last decade or so is astounding to me,” Rollins told the panel. “It is a national security issue and we’re relying on Russia and China for our fertilizer. The announcement is coming.” Urea prices, the key nitrogen fertilizer input for corn production, are still running approximately 80 percent above where they stood at the start of the year despite a partial pullback after the Strait of Hormuz reopened on April 17. Republican and Democratic senators alike pressed Rollins hard on the fertilizer market, which has been severely disrupted by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Rollins Senate fertilizer hearing also covers Forest Service overhaul and screwworm
The fertilizer crisis was not the only flashpoint at the hearing. Rollins told senators that the Trump administration will have news by the end of this week on “the next phase” of its reorganization of the Forest Service, the 121-year-old land management agency that oversees 198 million acres of forests. The restructuring plan, announced March 31, 2026, is set to relocate thousands of federal workers from Washington, D.C. to cities including Salt Lake City. More than 30 senators, including Sen. Martin Heinrich, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, sent a letter to Deputy Agriculture Secretary Stephen Vaden on Wednesday expressing concern that the reorganization could reduce agency capacity and harm forest management.
Rollins also teased what she called the “biggest announcement to date” on the New World Screwworm threat, which has kept the U.S.-Mexico border closed to feeder cattle imports for approximately one year. That closure has removed an estimated 1.2 million head of Mexican feeder cattle from the supply pipeline. For more on the screwworm response infrastructure, Agroinformacion covered the $750 million sterile fly facility groundbreaking in Edinburg, Texas on April 17.
What the “all-of-government” fertilizer plan might include and why it matters now?
The administration has already taken some preliminary steps on fertilizer prices, including easing domestic shipping requirements under the Jones Act and loosening controls on Venezuelan fertilizer imports. Neither measure has been sufficient to reverse the spike driven by the Hormuz closure. A Farmer’s Keeper survey of 4,000 farmers released April 20 found that 20.3 percent have already cut their corn acres in response to fertilizer price increases. The American Farm Bureau Federation’s own survey found 67 percent of Midwest farmers pre-booked fertilizer before the price spike, meaning roughly one-third did not and are now exposed to the full market price. The original coverage was published by Agri-Pulse on April 22, 2026.