{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://newhouse.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/newhouse-calls-usda-enforce-laws-disclose-chinese-and-other-foreign", "Newhouse Calls on USDA to Enforce Laws, Disclose Chinese and Other Foreign Purchases of Farmland", "2022-07-25", "2022", "2022-07", "Republican", "House", "WA", "Dan Newhouse", "N000189", "newhouse.house.gov", "newhouse", "https://newhouse.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013\u2013 Today, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) and Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) led 19 House Republicans in a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack requesting information about USDA\u2019s process for compiling data and reporting on foreign purchases of U.S. agricultural land. Foreign 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. \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\n\n\u201cAmerica\u2019s ability to grow and produce resources here at home is our greatest strength,\u201d said Rep. Emmer. \u201cThe growing trend of foreign nations, like China, buying up American farmland presents an insidious threat to our ability to feed our own people. We 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\nYou can read the full letter here and below.\n\nDear Secretary Vilsack:\n\nWe are alarmed by the pace at which Chinese companies have been purchasing U.S. agricultural land in recent years. Given this trend, we want to ensure the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has the reporting tools necessary to provide Americans with the fullest possible picture of all foreign purchases of United States land.\n\nA May report from the China Economic and Security Review Commission suggests that People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC) is committed to acquiring foreign farmland to meet growing food supply demands that cannot currently be met at home. While entities originating from the PRC currently hold slightly less than one percent of all foreign-held acres in the United States, the volume of their holdings surged significantly, from 13,720 acres to 352,140 acres, between 2010 and 2020.\n\nWe are alarmed by the rapid increase in the amount of United States land acquired by Chinese entities, because no major economic activity originating from the PRC is transacted without the direct or indirect participation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which does not share our nation\u2019s democratic and free market values. Additionally, the PRC is a major global rival, and the CCP frequently engages in malicious practices: CCP-initiated intellectual property theft cost the United States an estimated $600 billion in 2019, and over the last decade, CCP nationals have been prosecuted on multiple occasions for attempting to steal U.S. seed DNA information.\n\nIf we look beyond just China, all foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land have increased by an average of 2.3 million acres per year between 2015 and 2020. Fortunately, at least 74 percent of these foreign holdings originate from countries with which the United States has friendly relations. However, in all foreign holding cases \u2013 potentially concerning or otherwise \u2013 our information appears to be largely limited to the reporting companies required under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA). This legislation, enacted in 1978, only requires foreign persons who buy, sell, or gain interest in U.S. agricultural land to disclose their holdings and transactions to USDA directly or to the Farm Service Agency county office where the land is located; the bill does not require details related to a company\u2019s ownership structure or investment intentions.\n\nTo learn more about USDA\u2019s process for compiling data and reporting on foreign purchases of U.S. agricultural land, we request you provide us with detailed answers to the following questions:\n\nUnder AFIDA, USDA has authority to ensure foreign entities are meeting AFIDA reporting requirements. To what extent are enforcement mechanisms successfully prompting compliance?\n\nWhat process is USDA following to monitor changes in land usage between AFIDA reporting periods? Where is that data recorded?\n\nCurrently, AFIDA uses the following categories: \u201ctimber of forest,\u201d \u201ccropland,\u201d \u201cpastureland,\u201d \u201cnon-agricultural land,\u201d and \u201cother land.\u201d Would USDA be able to provide a clear definition of \u201cother agricultural land\u201d and provide examples of what could fall within this category?\n\nDuring this time of high inflation and supply chain challenges, food-producing land is more important than ever, and our constituents deserve to know as much as possible about foreign acquisition of domestic farmland, regardless of whether we are concerned about the motives of the parties involved. We look forward to your timely response.", 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://newhouse.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/newhouse-calls-usda-enforce-laws-disclose-chinese-and-other-foreign"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4229880180209875, "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"}