January 18, 2024
Today, Rep. Dan Newhouse (WA-04), a member of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), released the following statement on the Government Accountability Office’s new report revealing that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) cannot report reliable information to Congress, or the public, about where and how much U.S. agricultural land is held by foreign persons.
“This report confirms one of our worst fears: that not only is the USDA unable to answer the question of who owns what land and where, but that there is no plan by the department to internally reverse this dangerous flaw that affects our supply chain and economy. Food security is national security, and we cannot allow foreign adversaries to influence our food supply while we stick our heads in the sand.”
“I will, in my capacity as a member of the Select Committee on the CCP, Chairman of the Western Caucus, and as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, be working to introduce measures aimed at fixing USDA’s internal reporting and data management to identify to Congress, and the American people, exactly who is investing in the over 40 million acres of U.S. farmland reported to have ties to foreign actors.”
The GAO report released today outlines that the USDA does not share timely data on foreign investments in agricultural land collected under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA). The report comes as efforts in the last year to identify and prohibit foreign adversaries from purchasing U.S. agricultural land, especially near sensitive sites and military installations, have been under way in Congress.
Additionally, the report cited that the USDA annually publishes selected AFIDA information online that CFIUS agencies may use when considering potential national security risks associated with agricultural land. However, DOD officials noted they need AFIDA information that is more up-to-date and more specific, and they need to receive this information more than once a year.
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