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FIRST ON FOX: Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, Democrat Sen. John Fetterman and others are teaming up on laws to codify oversight on overseas nations shopping for American farmland.
The bipartisan Agricultural International Funding Disclosure (AFIDA) Enhancements Act seeks to implement suggestions revealed by the Authorities Accountability Workplace (GAO) in January 2024, which discovered the AFIDA was ill-equipped to fight overseas possession of American agricultural land.
“American farmland ought to stay within the palms of American farmers and ranchers, not overseas adversaries,” Ricketts of Nebraska shared first with Fox Information Digital. “The neighbors who feed us ought to profit from land possession, not Communist China. Meals safety is nationwide safety.”
The invoice, additionally co-sponsored by Sens. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, John Cornyn of Texas, Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska launched laws, requires AFIDA reporting for overseas individuals holding multiple p.c curiosity in American agricultural land.
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Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., proposed bipartisan laws on Thursday to extend oversight on overseas nations shopping for American farmland. (Getty Photographs)
“Over the previous a number of a long time, China has been shopping for up American farmland in an try to infiltrate our agriculture provide chains. Meals safety is nationwide safety, and we can’t give the CCP a foothold,” Tuberville stated in a press release to Fox Information Digital.
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The AFIDA Enhancements Act goals to extend information-sharing between the Committee on International Funding in america and the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA). It additionally requires updates to the AFIDA’s handbook and establishes a deadline for USDA to arrange a web-based AFIDA system.
The invoice’s Home sponsor, Bacon, informed Fox Information Digital that “having precise processes in place will strengthen the safety of our nation within the occasion nefarious overseas brokers, such because the CCP, attempt to buy agricultural lands inside our nation.”
A tractor collects bales of hay throughout a heatwave exterior Elgin, Texas, on Wednesday, July 20, 2022.
Based mostly on the GAO’s suggestions, the invoice seeks to replace the Agricultural International Funding Disclosure Act of 1978 to raised equip the USDA to fight overseas adversaries’ possession of American agricultural land.
Below AFIDA, overseas entities should confide in the USDA transactions of American agricultural land.
International buyers personal over 40 million acres of agricultural land in america, and between 2010 and 2021, Chinese language possession of American agricultural land elevated from 13,720 acres to 383,935 acres, in keeping with the USDA.
The AFIDA Enhancements Act is the most recent try by Congressional Republicans to trace overseas possession of American farmland and strengthen nationwide safety. It was first launched by Bacon and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., in 2024.
China owned round 350,000 acres of farmland throughout 27 states as of final yr, in keeping with knowledge from the U.S. Division of Agriculture
China’s nationwide flag flutters on Pingtan island, the closest level in China to Taiwan’s fundamental island, in southeast China’s Fujian province on December 11, 2024. (Adek Berry)
The motion to ban China from shopping for U.S. farmland situated close to army bases has been gaining steam within the Senate this yr. The PASS Act, led by Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., has the backing of Majority Chief John Thune, R-S.D., and would forestall any entity from a “coated nation,” which incorporates China, North Korea, Russia and Iran, from buying agricultural land close to army bases or delicate websites.
Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Katie Britt of Alabama, proposed The Not One Extra Inch or Acre Act, earlier this yr to ban China from shopping for U.S. land fully.
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On the presidential marketing campaign path in 2024, President Donald Trump indicated he would ban China from shopping for American farmland.
The Senate handed an modification with bipartisan help in 2023 that might ban China, Russia, North Korea and Iran from shopping for American farmland and agricultural companies, however it didn’t develop into regulation.
Fox Information Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
Deirdre Heavey is a politics author for Fox Information Digital.
