WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Dan Newhouse (WA-04) introduced the Keeping Public Lands Out of Adversarial Hands Act to add the United States Secretary of the Interior to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
“Last summer, we were successful in adding the Secretary of Agriculture to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to counter Communist China’s efforts to purchase American farmland. Today, I am taking the next step to protect American land by introducing legislation to add the U.S. Secretary of the Interior to CFIUS,” said Rep. Newhouse.
Newhouse added, “In this role, the Secretary and the Department of the Interior will have the authority to review foreign investment into lands near public land across the country and help identify potential national security threats to the valuable natural resources we have right under our feet. Our adversaries like the CCP, North Korea, Russia, and Iran have no business owning these lands, and we need to seize every opportunity to ensure they never do.”
Rep. Newhouse was joined by Reps. Jeff Hurd (CO-03), John Rose (TN-06), Ashley Hinson (IA-02), and Mike Ezell (MS-04) as cosponsors of the legislation.
This legislation adds the Secretary of the Interior to CFIUS to review transactions for land or resources adjacent to land or sites owned or managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
Background
In July 2025, a Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Agriculture was signed, implementing a provision Rep. Newhouse secured in the Fiscal Year 2024 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill to add the Secretary of Agriculture to CFIUS.
See full bill text here.
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