I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1629
To amend the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 to
remove the limitation on the amount of a civil penalty, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY26, 2025
Ms. P
EREZ(for herself and Mr. MOOLENAAR) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
A BILL
To amend the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure
Act of 1978 to remove the limitation on the amount
of a civil penalty, 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 ‘‘Farmland Security Act 4
of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. IMPROVING AGRICULTURAL FOREIGN INVESTMENT 6
DISCLOSURE. 7
(a) C
IVILPENALTY.—Section 3 of the Agricultural 8
Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 9
3502) is amended— 10
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(1) in subsection (a), by striking the second 1
sentence; 2
(2) in subsection (b)— 3
(A) by striking ‘‘The amount’’ and insert-4
ing ‘‘Except as provided in subsection (c), the 5
amount’’; and 6
(B) by striking ‘‘Act,’’ and all that follows 7
through the period at the end and inserting 8
‘‘Act.’’; and 9
(3) by adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(c) P
ENALTY FORSHELLCORPORATIONS.— 11
‘‘(1) D
EFINITION OF SHELL CORPORATION .—In 12
this subsection, the term ‘shell corporation’ means a 13
corporation, company, association, firm, partnership, 14
society, joint stock company, trust, estate, or any 15
other legal entity that has no or nominal operations. 16
‘‘(2) A
MOUNT OF PENALTY .—The amount of a 17
civil penalty under subsection (a) for a foreign- 18
owned shell corporation, as determined by the Sec-19
retary, shall be 100 percent of the fair market value, 20
on the date of the assessment of the penalty, of the 21
interest in agricultural land with respect to which 22
the violation occurred. 23
‘‘(3) N
ONAPPLICATION OF PENALTY .—A shell 24
corporation shall not be subject to a civil penalty 25
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under this section if the shell corporation remedies 1
a defective filing or failure to file not later than 60 2
days after the Secretary provides notice to the shell 3
corporation of the defective filing or failure to file.’’. 4
(b) I
NVESTIGATIVEACTIONS.—Section 4 of the Agri-5
cultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 6
U.S.C. 3503) is amended— 7
(1) by striking ‘‘The Secretary’’ and inserting 8
the following: 9
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary’’; and 10
(2) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(b) A
UDIT.—The Secretary shall conduct an annual 12
compliance audit of not less than 10 percent of the reports 13
submitted under section 2 for the year covered by the 14
audit to ensure the completeness and accuracy of reports 15
submitted under that section. In conducting, such audit, 16
the Secretary may consult with such other heads of such 17
other Federal agencies as the Secretary determines appro-18
priate. 19
‘‘(c) T
RAINING.—The Secretary shall provide annual 20
training to State and county-level personnel relating to 21
identifying agricultural land for which— 22
‘‘(1) a report is required to be submitted under 23
section 2; but 24
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‘‘(2) no report has been submitted by the appli-1
cable foreign person.’’. 2
(c) R
EPORTS.—Section 6 of the Agricultural Foreign 3
Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 3505) is 4
amended— 5
(1) by striking the section designation and 6
heading and all that follows through ‘‘Not later 7
than’’ and inserting the following: 8
‘‘SEC. 6. REPORTS. 9
‘‘(a) T
OSTATES.—Not later than’’; and 10
(2) by adding at the end the following: 11
‘‘(b) T
OCONGRESS.— 12
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 13
after the date of enactment of the Farmland Secu-14
rity Act of 2025, and annually thereafter, the Sec-15
retary shall submit to Congress a report describing 16
the results of the research carried out under para-17
graph (2). 18
‘‘(2) R
ESEARCH.—The Secretary shall carry out 19
research on— 20
‘‘(A) the agricultural leasing activities in 21
the United States of foreign persons, including 22
the impact of those activities on family farms, 23
rural communities, and the domestic food sup-24
ply; 25
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‘‘(B) trends relating to the purchase of ag-1
ricultural land in the United States by foreign- 2
owned shell corporations; and 3
‘‘(C) foreign ownership of agricultural pro-4
duction capacity and foreign participation in 5
agricultural economic activity in the United 6
States.’’. 7
(d) A
UTHORIZATION OFAPPROPRIATIONS.—The Ag-8
ricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 9
U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end 10
the following: 11
‘‘SEC. 11. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 12
‘‘There is authorized to be appropriated to the Sec-13
retary to carry out this Act $2,000,000 for each of fiscal 14
years 2025 through 2030.’’. 15
Æ
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