House OKs Amendment Banning Adversaries From Purchasing Farmland

Foreign adversaries are blocked from buying American farmland under an amendment added to the House-passed Farm Bill.  The amendment, offered by Florida Republican Greg Steube, passed along a voice vote.

“Right now, federal law does not have a forceful provision that strictly denies entities and persons affiliated with foreign adversaries and state sponsors of terrorism from buying up American farmland," Steube said on the House Floor.  "The same governments that hack our critical infrastructure, poison our communities with Fentanyl, and dare to surpass the United States on the world stage, are slowly acquiring American farmland.”

Much of that land is near sensitive military sites.

Hawaii Democrat Jill Tokuda agreed those sites should be protected, but argued the land restriction could be misused by President Trump and future Administrations.

“We’ve been down this road before," Tokuda said from the floor.  "So-called ‘alien land laws’ once barred those ineligible for citizenship from owning or leasing land, disproportionately targeting Chinese and Japanese communities, because discriminatory federal laws denied them naturalization.”

Tokuda pointed out just 3.5% of U.S. farmland is foreign-owned, and mostly by U.S. allies—not China.  But House Ag Chair G.T. Thompson argued an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, especially when it comes to food.

"Agricultural land is a strategic asset tied directly to food supply, and restricting foreign ownership helps ensure that adversarial nations or entities, whoever those adversaries may be, in the future, cannot gain control of the land near sensitive sites, or quite frankly, cannot control our food supply,” Thompson said.

The House Ag Chair said 29 states have laws restricting foreign ownership of U.S. farmland. He said Steube’s rider compliments farm bill language that gives the Ag secretary a seat on a key national security board that screens foreign U.S. investments.

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