The House approved legislation Wednesday that would increase oversight of farmland purchases by investors from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
The Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act, backed by Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., passed the chamber 269-149 with support from 55 Democrats. Only one Republican voted against it.
The bill would add the agriculture secretary to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an interagency body tasked with screening foreign investments in U.S. companies or property for potential threats to national security, and then making recommendations to the president, who ultimately decides whether the transaction should be cleared or blocked.
The legislation would also authorize the committee to initiate reviews of agricultural land, biotechnology, transportation, storage or processing facility purchases by Chinese, Iranian, North Korean or Iranian investors referred to it by the Agriculture Secretary.
The bill represents a shift in Newhouse’s approach to foreign farmland ownership. He previously proposed an amendment to the fiscal 2024 Agriculture appropriations bill directing the Agriculture Department to bar entities “associated with” the four governments from owning land.
“We've been working on this for a couple of years. We found that USDA doesn't have, or didn't have all the necessary tools in order to do what they need to do,” Newhouse told Agri-Pulse. “We’ve been able to refine the process, get them a seat on CFIUS, and make sure that they have the direction in the mission to oversee these transactions.”
Foreign investors owned or leased 43.4 million acres, or about 3.4% of the nation’s total farm, ranch and forest land, in 2022, according to the most recent USDA data available. Chinese landholdings, which have become a focus of concern for lawmakers over the years, totaled 346,915 acres that year, less than 1% of all foreign-held agricultural acres.
“I totally would admit that their presence in the United States is not huge, but it's grown,” Newhouse said of landholdings from China. “We just wanted to make sure that we had a system in place that we don't turn around one day and think we should have done something.”
Iranian investors, meanwhile, held 1,749 acres, while Russian investors held 73. No North Korean investors reported holding land, according to the data.
Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., criticized the measure ahead of the vote, noting that “the broad definition of foreign persons would encompass all legal immigrants and refugees” from the four countries. He had requested it be sent back to committee for revisions.
“This opens the door to treating immigrants as national security threats solely because of their country of origin and harms Asian American communities across the board,” Takano said.
The White House, in a statement of administration policy prior to the vote, also opposed the bill. It noted that the agriculture secretary has since 2021 been participating in CFIUS through an agreement between departments. It also added that the measure is “inconsistent with CFIUS processes and would not be implementable as drafted.”
The agriculture secretary is already authorized as a member of CFIUS on a “case by case basis” due to language in the finalized FY24 appropriations package. But Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., noted in a floor speech that the Newhouse bill would make USDA's inclusion on CFIUS permanent.
The bill now advances to the Democratic-controlled Senate, where three Democrats have joined 10 Republican senators to introduce a companion bill.
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