Protecting America’s Agricultural Land from Foreign Harm Act of 2025

Summary

Prohibits entities owned, controlled by, or subject to direction of specified foreign adversaries (China, Russia, Iran, North Korea) from buying or leasing U.S. agricultural land and from participating in most USDA programs if they own or lease such land. It uses emergency economic authorities to enforce the ban, applies civil and criminal penalties for violations, and preserves some narrow program and ownership exceptions. Strengthens reporting and transparency rules for foreign ownership of U.S. farm and ranch land by expanding what counts as an “interest” (to include leases and security interests), increasing penalty authority and lien powers for noncompliance, requiring public machine-readable datasets with more detailed ownership and transaction information, and mandating federal reports from USDA, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Government Accountability Office on risks, motives, monitoring, and enforcement.

• Prohibits entities tied to China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea from buying or leasing U.S. agricultural land and blocks their participation in most USDA programs if they own/lease such land.
• Uses IEEPA authorities to implement prohibitions and applies IEEPA civil and criminal penalties for violations.
• Expands AFIDA to treat leases and security interests as reportable "interests" and broadens the definition of foreign persons to include certain foreign-traded entities.
• Requires the Secretary of Agriculture to publish human- and machine-readable AFIDA datasets (including purchase amounts and owners with ≥1% interests) and to update data within 30 days of each report.
• Increases enforcement tools by modifying penalty language, removing a prior cap, and requiring liens on land when a penalty is imposed.
• Preserves current owners: covered persons owning/leasing land at enactment are not required to divest, and transfers from covered to non-covered persons are allowed.
• Mandates federal reporting: USDA, the Director of National Intelligence, and GAO must report on risks, malign influence, monitoring, and enforcement within one year and at regular intervals.
• Includes limited exceptions allowing covered persons to participate in food safety, health/labor safety programs, and certain FSA programs tied to implementation of the law.