{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://emmer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/emmer-newhouse-lead-letter-addressing-foreign-acquisition-of-us-farmland", "Emmer, Newhouse Lead Letter Addressing Foreign Acquisition of U.S. Farmland", "2022-07-25", "2022", "2022-07", "Republican", "House", "MN", "Tom Emmer", "E000294", "emmer.house.gov", "emmer", "https://emmer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C.\u2014Today, Representatives Tom Emmer (MN-06) and Dan Newhouse (WA-04) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asking for clarity and accountability from foreign entities seeking to purchase U.S. farmland.\n\n\u201cAmerica\u2019s ability to grow and produce resources here at home is our greatest strength,\u201d Emmer said. \u201cThe growing trend of foreign nations, like China, buying up American farmland presents an insidious threat to our ability to feed our own people.\u201d\n\nEmmer continued, \u201cWe cannot allow these crucial resources to be taken by faceless foreign actors. We must understand the identities and intentions of those attempting to purchase our farmland.\u201d\n\nForeign ownership of domestic agricultural land has risen sharply in recent years, with Chinese land holdings alone increasing from 13,720 acres to 352,140 acres between 2010 and 2020.\n\n\u201cOver the last decade\u2014and continuing today\u2014we have witnessed the People\u2019s Republic of China invest trillions of dollars throughout the Middle East, Indo-Pacific, South America, and Africa as part of their Belts and Roads Initiative. Now, they\u2019re purchasing U.S. agricultural assets as a national priority for the PRC. This poses an immediate threat to U.S. national security and food security,\u201d said Rep. Newhouse.\n\n\u201cTransparency on USDA\u2019s process for reporting on foreign purchases of U.S. agricultural land\u2014and ensuring the Biden Administration is enforcing the laws we already have in place\u2014is the bare minimum we need to be doing to protect our national security,\u201d Newhouse concluded.\n\nSpecifically, the letter asks about the USDA\u2019s process for compiling and reporting data on foreign land purchases under the 1978 Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act.\n\nYou can read the text of the letter in full here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T02:49:02Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://emmer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/emmer-newhouse-lead-letter-addressing-foreign-acquisition-of-us-farmland"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7071360014379025, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}