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First on Fox: The Republican senator Pete Ricketts, the Democratic senator John Fetterman and others associate themselves with legislation to codify the surveillance of foreign countries buying American agricultural land.
The Act on Improvements for Foreign Agricultural Investment Bipartisan (AFIDA) Improvations aims to implement recommendations published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in January 2024, which found that Afida was poorly equipped to combat foreign property of American agricultural land.
“American agricultural land should stay in the hands of farmers and American breeders, not foreign opponents,” shared Nebraska Ricketts with Fox News Digital. “The neighbors who feed us should benefit from land ownership, not communist China. Food security is national security.”
The bill, also co -sponsored by Sens. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, John Cornyn of Texas, Roger Wicker of Mississippi and the representative Don Bacon of Nebraska have introduced legislation, requires relationships on foreigners for foreign people with more than one percent interest for American agricultural land.
The GOP Governor hopes to push anti-china policy after years of Chinese investment
Senator Pete Ricketts, R-NEB., Proposed bipartite legislation on Thursday to increase the surveillance of foreign countries buying American agricultural land. (Getty Images)
“In recent decades, China has bought US agricultural land to try to infiltrate our agricultural supply chains. Food security is national security, and we cannot give the PCC,” Tuberville said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
The Senate Republicans are launching efforts to prohibit Chinese nationals from buying land in the United States
AFIDA Improvements ACT aims to increase information sharing between the United States Foreign Investment Committee and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). It also requires updates to the AFIDA manual and establishes a deadline for the USDA in order to create an online AFIDA system.
The sponsor of the Bill Chamber, Bacon, told Fox News Digital that “the implementation of real processes will strengthen the security of our nation in the event that harmful foreign agents, such as PCC, try to buy agricultural land within our country”.
A tractor collects hay balls during a heat wave outside Elgin, Texas, Wednesday, July 20, 2022.
Based on the GAO recommendations, the bill aims to update the law on the disclosure of agricultural foreign investment in 1978 to better equip the USDA to combat the ownership of foreign opponents of American agricultural land.
Under AFIDA, foreign entities must disclose USDA in the USDA agricultural land.
Foreign investors have more than 40 million acres of agricultural land in the United States, and between 2010 and 2021, Chinese ownership of American agricultural land increased from 13,720 acres to 383,935 acres, according to the USDA.
AFIDA Improvements Act is the last attempt of the Congress Republicans to follow the foreign property of American agricultural land and to strengthen national security. It was presented for the first time by Bacon and Senator Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., In 2024.
China had around 350,000 acres of agricultural land in 27 states of last year, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture
The Chinese national flag flows to the island of Pingtan, the nearest point in China on the main island of Taiwan, in the south-east of Fujian province in China on December 11, 2024. (Adek Berry)
The movement to prohibit China from buying American agricultural land located near military bases has steam in the Senate this year. The Law of the Pass, led by Senator Mike Rounds, RS.D., has the support of the majority leader John Thune, RS.D., and would prevent any entity in a “covered country”, which includes China, North Korea, Russia and Iran, to buy agricultural land near military bases or sensitive sites.
Republican Sens. Tom Cotton d’Arkansas, Kevin Cramer of Dakota from the North and Katie Britt of Alabama, proposed the law more One Inch or Acre, earlier this year to fully ban the purchase of American land.
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On the track of the presidential campaign in 2024, President Donald Trump said that he would prohibit China from buying American agricultural land.
The Senate adopted an amendment with bipartite support in 2023 which would prohibit China, Russia, North Korea and Iran to buy American agricultural land and agricultural businesses, but it has not become the law.
Morgan Phillips of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
