II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 903
To amend the Defense Production Act of 1950 to require the Committee
on Foreign Investment in the United States to review and prohibit
certain transactions relating to agriculture.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH6, 2025
Mr. R
OUNDS(for himself, Ms. CORTEZMASTO, Ms. LUMMIS, Mr. THUNE, and
Mr. H
OEVEN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and re-
ferred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
A BILL
To amend the Defense Production Act of 1950 to require
the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United
States to review and prohibit certain transactions relat-
ing to agriculture.
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 ‘‘Promoting Agriculture 4
Safeguards and Security Act’’ or the ‘‘PASS Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. REVIEW AND PROHIBITIONS BY COMMITTEE ON 1
FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN THE UNITED 2
STATES OF CERTAIN TRANSACTIONS RELAT-3
ING TO AGRICULTURE. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 721 of the Defense Pro-5
duction Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4565) is amended— 6
(1) in subsection (a), by adding at the end the 7
following: 8
‘‘(14) A
GRICULTURE.—The term ‘agriculture’ 9
has the meaning given that term in section 3 of the 10
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 11
203).’’; 12
(2) in subsection (b)(1), by adding at the end 13
the following: 14
‘‘(I) C
ONSIDERATION OF CERTAIN AGRI -15
CULTURAL LAND TRANSACTIONS .— 16
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 30 17
days after receiving notification from the 18
Secretary of Agriculture of a reportable 19
agricultural land transaction, the Com-20
mittee shall determine— 21
‘‘(I) whether the transaction is a 22
covered transaction; and 23
‘‘(II) if the Committee deter-24
mines that the transaction is a cov-25
ered transaction, whether to— 26
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‘‘(aa) request the submission 1
of a notice under clause (i) of 2
subparagraph (C) or a declara-3
tion under clause (v) of such sub-4
paragraph pursuant to the proc-5
ess established under subpara-6
graph (H); or 7
‘‘(bb) initiate a review pur-8
suant to subparagraph (D). 9
‘‘(ii) R
EPORTABLE AGRICULTURAL 10
LAND TRANSACTION DEFINED .—In this 11
subparagraph, the term ‘reportable agricul-12
tural land transaction’ means a trans-13
action— 14
‘‘(I) that the Secretary of Agri-15
culture has reason to believe is a cov-16
ered transaction; 17
‘‘(II) that involves the acquisition 18
of an interest in agricultural land by 19
a foreign person, other than an ex-20
cepted investor or an excepted real es-21
tate investor, as such terms are de-22
fined in regulations prescribed by the 23
Committee; and 24
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‘‘(III) with respect to which a 1
person is required to submit a report 2
to the Secretary of Agriculture under 3
section 2(a) of the Agricultural For-4
eign Investment Disclosure Act of 5
1978 (7 U.S.C. 3501(a)).’’; 6
(3) in subsection (k)(2)— 7
(A) by redesignating subparagraphs (H), 8
(I), and (J) as subparagraphs (I), (J), and (K), 9
respectively; and 10
(B) by inserting after subparagraph (G) 11
the following: 12
‘‘(H) The Secretary of Agriculture, with 13
respect to any covered transaction related to 14
the purchase of agricultural land or agricultural 15
biotechnology or otherwise related to the agri-16
culture industry in the United States.’’; and 17
(4) by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(r) P
ROHIBITIONSRELATING TOPURCHASES OF 19
A
GRICULTURAL LAND AND AGRICULTURAL BUSI-20
NESSES.— 21
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—If the Committee, in con-22
ducting a review under this section, determines that 23
a transaction described in clause (i), (ii), or (iv) of 24
subsection (a)(4)(B) would result in the purchase or 25
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lease by a covered foreign person of real estate de-1
scribed in paragraph (2) or would result in control 2
by a covered foreign person of a United States busi-3
ness engaged in agriculture, the President shall pro-4
hibit the transaction unless a party to the trans-5
action voluntarily chooses to abandon the trans-6
action. 7
‘‘(2) R
EAL ESTATE DESCRIBED .—Subject to 8
regulations prescribed by the Committee, real estate 9
described in this paragraph is agricultural land (as 10
defined in section 9 of the Agricultural Foreign In-11
vestment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 3508)) 12
in the United States that is in close proximity (sub-13
ject to subsection (a)(4)(C)(ii)) to a United States 14
military installation or another facility or property of 15
the United States Government that is— 16
‘‘(A) sensitive for reasons relating to na-17
tional security for purposes of subsection 18
(a)(4)(B)(ii)(II)(bb); and 19
‘‘(B) identified in regulations prescribed by 20
the Committee. 21
‘‘(3) W
AIVER.—The President may waive, on a 22
case-by-case basis, the requirement to prohibit a 23
transaction under paragraph (1) after the President 24
determines and reports to the Committee on Bank-25
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ing, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate and 1
the Committee on Financial Services of the House of 2
Representatives that the waiver is in the national in-3
terest of the United States. 4
‘‘(4) C
OVERED FOREIGN PERSON DEFINED .— 5
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In this subsection, 6
subject to regulations prescribed by the Com-7
mittee, the term ‘covered foreign person’— 8
‘‘(i) means any foreign person (includ-9
ing a foreign entity) that acts as an agent, 10
representative, or employee of, or acts at 11
the direction or control of, the government 12
of a covered country; and 13
‘‘(ii) does not include a United States 14
citizen or an alien lawfully admitted for 15
permanent residence to the United States. 16
‘‘(B) C
OVERED COUNTRY DEFINED .—For 17
purposes of subparagraph (A), the term ‘cov-18
ered country’ means any of the following coun-19
tries, if the country is determined to be a for-20
eign adversary pursuant to section 791.4 of 21
title 15, Code of Federal Regulations (or a suc-22
cessor regulation): 23
‘‘(i) The People’s Republic of China. 24
‘‘(ii) The Russian Federation. 25
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‘‘(iii) The Islamic Republic of Iran. 1
‘‘(iv) The Democratic People’s Repub-2
lic of Korea.’’. 3
(b) S
PENDINGPLANS.—Not later than 60 days after 4
the date of the enactment of this Act, each department 5
or agency represented on the Committee on Foreign In-6
vestment in the United States shall submit to the chair-7
person of the Committee a copy of the most recent spend-8
ing plan required under section 1721(b) of the Foreign 9
Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (50 10
U.S.C. 4565 note). 11
(c) R
EGULATIONS.— 12
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The President shall direct, 13
subject to section 553 of title 5, United States Code, 14
the issuance of regulations to carry out the amend-15
ments made by this section. 16
(2) E
FFECTIVE DATE.—The regulations pre-17
scribed under paragraph (1) shall take effect not 18
later than one year after the date of the enactment 19
of this Act. 20
(d) E
FFECTIVEDATE; APPLICABILITY.—The amend-21
ments made by this section shall— 22
(1) take effect on the date that is 30 days after 23
the effective date of the regulations under subsection 24
(c)(2); and 25
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(2) apply with respect to a covered transaction 1
(as defined in section 721 of the Defense Production 2
Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4565)) that is proposed, 3
pending, or completed on or after the date described 4
in paragraph (1). 5
Æ
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