Sponsors (12)
The bill strengthens national-security protections and transparency around foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land but does so by imposing new state and owner reporting requirements and penalties that could cut federal funding to noncompliant states and deter some foreign investment.
State governments, rural communities, and farmers: the bill lets states ban covered foreign countries and their agents from buying agricultural land, reducing the risk of foreign control of U.S. farmland.
State governments, farmers, Congress, and taxpayers: the bill increases transparency and federal oversight of foreign-held agricultural land by requiring annual reporting for existing foreign landowners, directing USDA to recommend AFIDA updates, and requiring a GAO national-security risk assessment with recommendations for Congress.
State governments and rural communities: states that do not pass the required law risk losing eligibility for specified federal program funds (from Public Law 117–169), potentially cutting funding for local projects and services.
Foreign investors, financial institutions, and farmers: defining covered foreign countries by the State Department export-control list (plus Russia) may capture non-adversarial countries and complicate transactions, chilling foreign investment in agricultural land.
State governments and taxpayers: states must draft and administer new laws and reporting systems, creating administrative costs and raising the risk of legal challenges over property and interstate preemption.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Conditions specified federal program funds on states passing laws that ban covered foreign countries from buying agricultural land and require annual reporting of preexisting foreign holdings.
Introduced February 11, 2025 by Stephanie I. Bice · Last progress February 11, 2025
Beginning one year after enactment, states would have to pass laws banning certain foreign countries and their agents from buying agricultural land and require annual reports from any covered foreign persons who already own farmland, or else become ineligible for specified federal program funds. The bill also directs federal reviews: the Secretary of Agriculture must recommend updates to foreign farmland disclosure rules within a year, and the Comptroller General must produce a national security assessment within 90 days.