Protecting American Agriculture From Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024
Floor Speech
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Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1430, I call up the bill (H.R. 9456) to amend the Defense Production Act of 1950 with respect to foreign investments in United States agriculture, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. D'Esposito). Pursuant to House Resolution 1430, the bill is considered read.
The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 9456
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024''. SEC. 2. INCLUSION OF SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE ON COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN UNITED STATES AND CONSIDERATION OF CERTAIN AGRICULTURAL LAND TRANSACTIONS.
(a) Inclusion on the Committee.--Section 721(k) of the Defense Production Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4565(k)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(8) Inclusion of the secretary of agriculture.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall be a member of the Committee with respect to a covered transaction that involves--
``(A) agricultural land;
``(B) agriculture biotechnology; or
``(C) the agriculture industry, including agricultural--
``(i) transportation;
``(ii) storage; and
``(iii) processing.''.
(b) Consideration of Certain Agricultural Land Transactions.--Section 721(b)(1) of the Defense Production Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4565(b)(1)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(I) Consideration of certain agricultural land transactions.--
``(i) In general.--After receiving notification from the Secretary of Agriculture of a reportable agricultural land transaction, the Committee shall determine--
``(I) whether the transaction is a covered transaction; and
``(II) if the Committee determines that the transaction is a covered transaction, whether the Committee should initiate a review pursuant to subparagraph (D), or take another action authorized under this section, with respect to the reportable agricultural land transaction.
``(ii) Reportable agricultural land transaction.--In this subparagraph, the term `reportable agricultural land transaction' means a transaction--
``(I) that the Secretary of Agriculture has reason to believe is a covered transaction;
``(II) that involves the acquisition of an interest in agricultural land by a foreign person of the People's Republic of China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, or the Islamic Republic of Iran; and
``(III) with respect to which a person is required to submit a report to the Secretary of Agriculture under section 2(a) of the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978.
``(iii) Sunset.--The requirements under this subparagraph shall terminate, with respect to a foreign person of the respective foreign country, on the date that the People's Republic of China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, or the Islamic Republic of Iran, as the case may be, is removed from the list of foreign adversaries in section 791.4 of title 15, Code of Federal Regulations.''.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 9456, the Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024. This important legislation would codify a new set of policies that were enacted under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024. H.R. 9456 would make those measures permanent.
I would like to begin by thanking the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Newhouse) for offering this legislation.
The bill is straightforward. It adds the Secretary of Agriculture as a permanent member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, CFIUS, for any transactions related to the purchase of agricultural land, agricultural biotechnology, or any other transactions related to the U.S. agricultural industry.
The bill also provides a mechanism for USDA to notify CFIUS of particularly sensitive agricultural transactions. Then, the interagency process must determine whether a review is appropriate. This legislation guarantees that the Secretary of Agriculture will have a seat at the table.
Agriculture Secretary Perdue under the Trump administration and Secretary Vilsack under this administration both agree that having a permanent member of CFIUS is necessary. In fact, during the House Committee on Agriculture hearing earlier this Congress, Secretary Vilsack discussed the implications of a permanent placement of the USDA Secretary on CFIUS, saying: ``Being a permanent member would allow us . . . to educate the other members of CFIUS about what to look for and what to be sensitive to when it comes to agriculture and agricultural production.''
I agree with the Secretary. USDA has the unique expertise that can benefit the other CFIUS members. That is why this bill is so important.
This bill is the combination of two pieces of legislation that received unanimous recorded votes as part of a Financial Services Committee markup last fall.
My legislation, the inclusion of the Agriculture Secretary as a CFIUS member, and my colleague from Missouri, Blaine Luetkemeyer's legislation, the USDA referral system, both enjoyed unanimous bipartisan support. In addition, slightly modified versions of these measures were enacted in the FY24 appropriations in March. I was pleased to see the policies become the law of the land.
H.R. 9456 would permanently authorize them rather than rely on the annual appropriations process.
The bill focuses the government's limited resources on foreign adversaries: the People's Republic of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. It is not about closing off the United States from the rest of the world.
For decades, Congress and the executive branch have upheld our country's commitment to an open investment climate. Foreign investment in the United States creates millions of jobs while boosting U.S. exports and expanding R&D budgets.
This legislation is consistent with our core American values and consistent with the unanimous bipartisan legislation passed in the Financial Services Committee.
Since the 1970s, USDA has been responsible for the collection of foreign ownership in U.S. agricultural land. This piece of legislation, as with the bipartisan committee-passed version and the provision currently in law as appropriations language, empowers USDA to flag foreign persons and entities for CFIUS to consider.
To object to this legislation is to object to current law, existing practices, and bipartisan consensus.
CFIUS' mandate remains clear. It must stay focused on national security issues, whether in agriculture or any other sector.
I am hopeful this bill will soon find its way to the President's desk so that the growing cooperation between CFIUS and USDA can continue, allowing CFIUS to take advantage of the subject matter expertise housed at the Department of Agriculture. Food and agricultural security is a critical component of our national security, and this legislation recognizes that.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. LUCAS. He understands the impact these issues have on farms and ranches across the country.
H.R. 9456 is comprised of two bills that were both marked up and unanimously reported from the Financial Services Committee. The administration did not send any technical assistance when both bills were marked up in the committee a full year ago. They did not send TA until 2 days before this bill went to Rules. The edits were very technical in nature and open to interpretation.
I repeat again: Both of the underlying bills were marked up and unanimously reported from the committee in September of 2023. My colleagues on both sides of the aisle voted for the language in committee, and the Treasury gave no responses at the time.
The Agriculture Foreign Investments Disclosure Act of 1978 already requires that all foreign persons and legal entities acquiring or transferring an interest in U.S. agricultural property submit a report to USDA containing the information on the transaction of the parties involved. That is present law.
CFIUS can already use this data when considering potential national security risks in determining whether a transaction is covered by its jurisdiction.
This bill does not change that jurisdiction. What this bill does is formally establish a referral system between USDA's current monitoring of land purchases and CFIUS in order to target our adversaries and avoid unnecessary bureaucracy.
The bill singles out purchases involving the People's Republic of China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. It is the governments of these nonfree societies that are our threats, and it is their manipulation of their people that are the threats we try to address.
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Mr. LUCAS. Madam Speaker, before I yield to my colleague from Michigan, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, this is a process that combines two good pieces of legislation. This is a process that takes what we successfully did in appropriations, which means an annual process of renewal, and it makes it permanent law.
This is an acknowledgement that Congress recognizes the importance of making this statute permanent, not just a part of annual funding language. It is hard for me to imagine why we wouldn't support this. It is just difficult to imagine.
Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Moolenaar).
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Mr. LUCAS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Baird), one of my fellow farmers, who understands these issues from the tractor seat and the field.
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Mr. LUCAS. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Indiana.
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Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, before I yield to the gentlewoman from Iowa, I will simply note that like all legislative processes with the signature of the President on this piece of legislation, it will supersede the appropriated law. It will be straightforward.
Mr. Speaker, I would note, as I conclude with my comments and yield back also, there have been many occasions when the good lady, the ranking member of the full committee, and I have battled over issues, and there have been occasions when we have been in the same trenches, fighting in the same direction on policy. I would say that she is always a very worthwhile adversary and just a pretty viciously effective ally on those rare occasions, but today, we disagree. We disagree.
I believe Americans have long recognized that a resilient food supply is essential to national security, which is why the rise of foreign investments in our Nation's farmlands deserves increased scrutiny.
We have seen our geopolitical adversaries, China in particular, are eager to exploit vulnerabilities in critical supply chains. Investment from China poses a unique risk to the American economy, and the Chinese Communist Party exercises immense control and influence over Chinese- owned companies operating abroad.
This bill recognizes that a national security framework that excludes agriculture is incomplete.
In my own State of Oklahoma, foreign land ownership has been against the law for decades and decades, but my State officials tell me that with the web of LLCs and trusts and a variety of other legal mechanisms, they have a difficult time in enforcing that.
This piece of legislation today is one of many pieces of the puzzle to bring this to a focus. If you care about the security of this great Nation and if you care about building on actions that we have taken in this Congress before, then I urge you to vote for this bill. Make permanent law what is now an annual appropriation-type process. I think it is the right thing to do.
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Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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