Washington, D.C.–U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) co-sponsored the Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024 to add the Secretary of Agriculture to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).  This move will add another layer of scrutiny on foreign acquisitions of U.S. farmland and agricultural industries and, specifically, flag farmland purchases by foreign adversaries like China, North Korea, Russia and Iran for CFIUS.  According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), more than 43.4 million acres of U.S. agricultural land is foreign-owned.

“This legislation protects Idaho from threats seen and unseen,” said Crapo.  “Allowing land purchases from foreign adversaries to go unchecked poses a great risk to national security and encroaches on America’s natural resources.”

Senators Mike Braun (R-Indiana), Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), Joe Manchin (I-West Virginia), Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), John Tester (D-Montana), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Pete Ricketts (R-Nebraska), John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), Katie Britt (R-Alabama), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin), Todd Young (R-Indiana), Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska, Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) also co-sponsored the legislation.

 The U.S. House of Representatives passed companion legislation introduced by Representative Dan Newhouse (R-Washington) earlier this week. 

Bill text can be found here.