[Congressional Bills 118th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 8453 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 118th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 8453 To require the Secretary of Agriculture to publish a report on the fertilizer industry, and for other purposes. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES May 17, 2024 Mrs. Hinson (for herself, Ms. Budzinski, and Mr. Feenstra) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To require the Secretary of Agriculture to publish a report on the fertilizer industry, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Fertilizer Research Act of 2024''. SEC. 2. FERTILIZER INDUSTRY REPORT. (a) In General.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture, in consultation with the Administrator of the Economic Research Service, shall publish on the website of the Department of Agriculture a report on the United States fertilizer industry, including-- (1) a description of the impacts on the fertilizer industry that influence the prices that agricultural producers receive for their agricultural products at the location of the farm; (2) a description of the current size and value, and the size and value over the previous 25 years, of the United States fertilizer market, including-- (A) any trends over the previous 25 years; and (B) such sizes and values by each type of fertilizer; (3) a description of any patterns in pricing of fertilizer over the previous 25 years; (4) a description of the importation of fertilizer into the United States, including-- (A) a list of types of fertilizer that are imported into the United States, including the quantity of each type of fertilizer imported; (B) a list of foreign companies and domestic companies that import into the United States fertilizer, including the quantity of fertilizer imported by each company; (C) a list of the countries from which fertilizer is imported into the United States; and (D) a description of the impacts that antidumping duties and countervailing duties have on prices of fertilizer paid at the retail level; (5) an overview of the manufacturing level, distribution channels, and retail level of the fertilizer supply chain, including transportation, logistics, and supply chain disruptions from natural disasters; (6) a study of the concentration of the United States fertilizer industry in United States fertilizer companies, including an evaluation of the extent to which concentration has had any anticompetitive impacts; (7) a description of the prices, crop-use efficiencies, and crop yields of emerging fertilizers and fertilizer technologies, including biological fertilizers and other recently developed tools, compared to conventional fertilizers and fertilizer technologies; (8) an assessment of the regulatory environment governing fertilizer production, distribution, and usage, including a description of areas in which regulatory burden is hampering domestic production, distribution, and usage of fertilizer; (9) a description of the extent to which current public price reporting of fertilizer is transparent for market participants and the extent to which further public price reporting is needed to achieve transparency for market participants, including-- (A) an evaluation of the potential for the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a fertilizer reporting mechanism in which the fertilizer industry is required to report fertilizer prices at multiple levels of the supply chain on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis; and (B) a recommendation to Congress on whether a reporting mechanism described in subparagraph (A) should be established; and (10) a description of the projected growth of the United States fertilizer market and the anticipated economic and political risks to fertilizer production as a result of that growth. (b) Confidential Information.--The report published under subsection (a) shall not include any confidential business information. <all>