I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1438
To prohibit the purchase or lease of agricultural land in the United States
by persons associated with certain foreign governments, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY18, 2025
Mr. S
TRONG(for himself, Mr. THOMPSONof California, Mr. NUNNof Iowa,
Mr. M
OOLENAAR, Mr. LAWLER, Mr. DONALDS, Mr. HIGGINSof Lou-
isiana, Mr. M
OOREof Alabama, Mr. SCOTTFRANKLINof Florida, Mr.
R
OGERSof Alabama, Mr. ARRINGTON, Mr. MCGUIRE, and Mr. ADER-
HOLT) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Agriculture, and in addition to the Committees on Foreign Affairs,
and Intelligence (Permanent Select), for a period to be subsequently de-
termined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To prohibit the purchase or lease of agricultural land in
the United States by persons associated with certain
foreign governments, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting America’s 4
Agricultural Land from Foreign Harm Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 1
In this Act: 2
(1) A
GRICULTURAL LAND.— 3
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘agricultural 4
land’’ has the meaning given the term in sec-5
tion 9 of the Agricultural Foreign Investment 6
Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 3508). 7
(B) I
NCLUSION.—The term ‘‘agricultural 8
land’’ includes land described in section 9(1) of 9
the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure 10
Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 3508(1)) that is used for 11
ranching purposes. 12
(2) C
OVERED PERSON.— 13
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘‘covered per-14
son’’ has the meaning given the term ‘‘person 15
owned by, controlled by, or subject to the juris-16
diction or direction of a foreign adversary’’ in 17
section 7.2 of title 15, Code of Federal Regula-18
tions (as in effect on the date of enactment of 19
this Act), except that each reference to ‘‘foreign 20
adversary’’ in that definition shall be deemed to 21
be a reference to the Government of— 22
(i) Iran; 23
(ii) North Korea; 24
(iii) the People’s Republic of China; or 25
(iv) the Russian Federation. 26
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(B) EXCLUSIONS.—The term ‘‘covered per-1
son’’ does not include a United States citizen or 2
an alien lawfully admitted for permanent resi-3
dence to the United States. 4
(3) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 5
the Secretary of Agriculture. 6
(4) U
NITED STATES.—The term ‘‘United 7
States’’ includes any State, territory, or possession 8
of the United States. 9
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON PURCHASE OR LEASE OF AGRI-10
CULTURAL LAND IN THE UNITED STATES BY 11
PERSONS ASSOCIATED WITH CERTAIN FOR-12
EIGN GOVERNMENTS. 13
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-14
sion of law, the President shall take such actions as may 15
be necessary to prohibit the purchase or lease by covered 16
persons of— 17
(1) public agricultural land that is owned by the 18
United States and administered by the head of any 19
Federal department or agency, including the Sec-20
retary, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Sec-21
retary of Defense; or 22
(2) private agricultural land located in the 23
United States. 24
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(b) IMPLEMENTATION.—The President may exercise 1
all authorities provided under sections 203 and 205 of the 2
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 3
U.S.C. 1702 and 1704) to carry out subsection (a). 4
(c) P
ENALTIES.—A person that knowingly violates, 5
attempts to violate, conspires to violate, or causes a viola-6
tion of subsection (a) or any regulation, license, or order 7
issued to carry out that subsection shall be subject to the 8
penalties set forth in subsections (b) and (c) of section 9
206 of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act 10
(50 U.S.C. 1705) to the same extent as a person that com-11
mits an unlawful act described in subsection (a) of that 12
section. 13
(d) R
ULE OFCONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-14
tion may be construed— 15
(1) to prohibit or otherwise affect the purchase 16
or lease of public or private agricultural land de-17
scribed in subsection (a) by any person other than 18
a covered person; 19
(2) to prohibit or otherwise affect the use of 20
public or private agricultural land described in sub-21
section (a) that is transferred to or acquired by a 22
person other than a covered person from a covered 23
person; or 24
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(3) to require a covered person that owns or 1
leases public or private agricultural land described in 2
subsection (a) as of the date of enactment of this 3
Act to sell that land. 4
SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON PARTICIPATION IN DEPARTMENT 5
OF AGRICULTURE PROGRAMS BY PERSONS 6
ASSOCIATED WITH CERTAIN FOREIGN GOV-7
ERNMENTS. 8
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 9
(b), notwithstanding any other provision of the law, the 10
President shall take such actions as may be necessary to 11
prohibit participation in Department of Agriculture pro-12
grams by covered persons that have full or partial owner-13
ship of agricultural land in the United States or lease agri-14
cultural land in the United States. 15
(b) E
XCLUSIONS.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to 16
participation in any program— 17
(1) relating to— 18
(A) food inspection or any other food safe-19
ty regulatory requirements; or 20
(B) health and labor safety of individuals; 21
or 22
(2) administered by the Farm Service Agency, 23
with respect to the administration of this Act or the 24
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Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1
1978 (7 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). 2
(c) P
ROOF OFCITIZENSHIP.—To participate in a De-3
partment of Agriculture program described in subsection 4
(b) (except for a program under this Act or the Agricul-5
tural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 6
U.S.C. 3501 et seq.)), a person described in subparagraph 7
(A) of section 2(2) that is a person described in subpara-8
graph (B) of that section shall submit to the Secretary 9
proof that the person is described in subparagraph (B) 10
of that section. 11
SEC. 5. AGRICULTURAL FOREIGN INVESTMENT DISCLO-12
SURE. 13
(a) I
NCLUSION OF SECURITYINTERESTS AND 14
L
EASES INREPORTINGREQUIREMENTS.— 15
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 9 of the Agricultural 16
Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 17
U.S.C. 3508) is amended— 18
(A) by redesignating paragraphs (4) 19
through (6) as paragraphs (5) through (7), re-20
spectively; and 21
(B) by inserting after paragraph (3) the 22
following: 23
‘‘(4) the term ‘interest’ includes— 24
‘‘(A) a security interest; and 25
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‘‘(B) a lease, without regard to the dura-1
tion of the lease;’’. 2
(2) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENT .—Section 2 of 3
the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act 4
of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 3501) is amended by striking ‘‘, 5
other than a security interest,’’ each place it ap-6
pears. 7
(b) C
IVILPENALTY.—Section 3 of the Agricultural 8
Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 9
3502) is amended— 10
(1) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘exceed 25 11
percent’’ and inserting ‘‘be less than 15 percent, or 12
exceed 30 percent,’’; and 13
(2) by adding at the end the following: 14
‘‘(c) L
IENS.—On imposing a penalty under sub-15
section (a), the Secretary shall ensure that a lien is placed 16
on the agricultural land with respect to which the violation 17
occurred, which shall be released only on payment of the 18
penalty.’’. 19
(c) T
RANSPARENCY.—Section 7 of the Agricultural 20
Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 21
3506) is amended to read as follows: 22
‘‘SEC. 7. PUBLIC DATA SETS. 23
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall publish in 24
the internet database established under section 742 of di-25
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vision B of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (7 1
U.S.C. 3501 note; Public Law 118–42) human-readable 2
and machine-readable data sets that— 3
‘‘(1) contain all data that the Secretary pos-4
sesses relating to reporting under this Act from each 5
report submitted to the Secretary under section 2; 6
and 7
‘‘(2) as soon as practicable, but not later than 8
30 days, after the date of receipt of any report 9
under section 2, shall be updated with the data from 10
that report. 11
‘‘(b) I
NCLUDEDDATA.—The data sets established 12
under subsection (a) shall include— 13
‘‘(1) a description of— 14
‘‘(A) the purchase price paid for, or any 15
other consideration given for, each interest in 16
agricultural land for which a report is sub-17
mitted under section 2; and 18
‘‘(B) updated estimated values of each in-19
terest in agricultural land described in subpara-20
graph (A), as that information is made avail-21
able to the Secretary, based on the most re-22
cently assessed value of the agricultural land or 23
another comparable method determined by the 24
Secretary; and 25
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‘‘(2) with respect to any agricultural land for 1
which a report is submitted under section 2, updated 2
descriptions of each foreign person who holds an in-3
terest in at least 1 percent of the agricultural land, 4
as that information is made available to the Sec-5
retary, categorized as a majority owner or a minor-6
ity owner that holds an interest in the agricultural 7
land.’’. 8
(d) D
EFINITION OFFOREIGNPERSON.—Section 9(3) 9
of the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 10
1978 (7 U.S.C. 3508(3)) is amended— 11
(1) in subparagraph (C)(ii)(IV), by striking 12
‘‘and’’ at the end; 13
(2) in subparagraph (D), by inserting ‘‘and’’ 14
after the semicolon; and 15
(3) by adding at the end the following: 16
‘‘(E) any person, other than an individual 17
or a government, that issues equity securities 18
that are primarily traded on a foreign securities 19
exchange within— 20
‘‘(i) Iran; 21
‘‘(ii) North Korea; 22
‘‘(iii) the People’s Republic of China; 23
or 24
‘‘(iv) the Russian Federation;’’. 25
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SEC. 6. REPORTS. 1
(a) R
EPORTFROM THESECRETARY ON FOREIGN 2
O
WNERSHIP OF AGRICULTURALLAND IN THEUNITED 3
S
TATES.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 5
the date of enactment of this Act, and once every 2 6
years thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to Con-7
gress a report describing— 8
(A) the risks and benefits, as determined 9
by the Secretary, that are associated with for-10
eign ownership or lease of agricultural land in 11
rural areas (as defined in section 520 of the 12
Housing Act of 1949 (42 U.S.C. 1490)); 13
(B) the intended and unintended misrepre-14
sentation of foreign land ownership in the an-15
nual reports prepared by the Secretary describ-16
ing foreign holdings of agricultural land due to 17
inaccurate reporting of foreign holdings of agri-18
cultural land; 19
(C) the specific work that the Secretary 20
has undertaken to monitor erroneous reporting 21
required by the Agricultural Foreign Invest-22
ment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 3501 et 23
seq.) that would result in a violation or civil 24
penalty; and 25
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(D) the role of State and local government 1
authorities in tracking foreign ownership of ag-2
ricultural land in the United States. 3
(2) P
ROTECTION OF INFORMATION .—In car-4
rying out paragraph (1), the Secretary shall estab-5
lish a plan to ensure the protection of personally 6
identifiable information. 7
(b) R
EPORTFROM THEDIRECTOR OFNATIONALIN-8
TELLIGENCE ON FOREIGNOWNERSHIP OF AGRICUL-9
TURALLAND IN THEUNITEDSTATES.— 10
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 11
the date of enactment of this Act, and once every 2 12
years thereafter, the Director of National Intel-13
ligence shall submit to the congressional recipients 14
described in paragraph (2) a report describing— 15
(A) an analysis of foreign malign influence 16
(as defined in section 119C(e) of the National 17
Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3059(e))) by 18
covered persons that have foreign ownership in 19
the United States agriculture industry; and 20
(B) the primary motives, as determined by 21
the Director of National Intelligence, of foreign 22
investors to acquire agricultural land. 23
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(2) CONGRESSIONAL RECIPIENTS DESCRIBED .— 1
The report under paragraph (1) shall be submitted 2
to— 3
(A) the Committee on Banking, Housing, 4
and Urban Affairs of the Senate; 5
(B) the Committee on Agriculture, Nutri-6
tion, and Forestry of the Senate; 7
(C) the Select Committee on Intelligence of 8
the Senate; 9
(D) the Committee on Foreign Relations of 10
the Senate; 11
(E) the Committee on Financial Services 12
of the House of Representatives; 13
(F) the Committee on Agriculture of the 14
House of Representatives; 15
(G) the Permanent Select Committee on 16
Intelligence of the House of Representatives; 17
(H) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of 18
the House of Representatives; 19
(I) the majority leader of the Senate; 20
(J) the minority leader of the Senate; 21
(K) the Speaker of the House of Rep-22
resentatives; and 23
(L) the minority leader of the House of 24
Representatives. 25
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(3) CLASSIFICATION.—The report under para-1
graph (1) shall be submitted in an unclassified form, 2
but may include a classified annex. 3
(c) G
OVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICERE-4
PORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 5
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 6
shall submit to Congress a report describing— 7
(1) a review of resources, staffing, and expertise 8
for carrying out the Agricultural Foreign Investment 9
Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), and 10
enforcement issues limiting the effectiveness of that 11
Act; and 12
(2) any recommended necessary changes to that 13
Act. 14
Æ
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