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Earlier this year, your state lawmakers in the Indiana General Assembly passed a bill that prevents China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and other adversarial countries from owning or leasing farmland in Indiana. That bill was introduced by State Rep. Kendell Culp (R-Rensselaer), signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb, and took effect on July 1.
One lawmaker on Capitol Hill now wants to take Indiana’s law and turn it into a nationwide ban.
“This is about our country’s national security in ensuring that adversaries—like China, like Russia, like North Korea or Iran—do not gain a foothold on American soil,” says Congressman Dan Newhouse (R-WA-04). He introduced the Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act on Aug. 30.
Newhouse says China’s ownership of U.S. farmland poses the greatest threat.
“The People’s Republic of China is only interested in reaping every possible benefit from U.S. land, without giving back or considering our future to sustain an independent energy and food production. The U.S. cannot become dependent on our adversaries for our domestic food supply,” says Newhouse.
Newhouse’s bill would add the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and to take necessary actions to prohibit the purchase of U.S. agricultural land or transactions by foreign adversaries—including land, biotechnology, transportation, storage, and processing. It also requires the Ag Secretary to report any transaction that can be considered a threat to national security.
Congressman John Moolenaar (R-MI-02) says he’s concerned about one company in particular, called Gotion.
“Gotion is a Chinese-based company that is buying farmland. It is a hundred miles from a National Guard location where a lot of training is done,” says Moolenaar.
Indiana’s law, which bans China and other adversarial countries from owning farmland, also prevents citizens from those specific counties from buying real estate within 10 miles of all military installations across the state.
House Republicans may try to attach several bills—including Newhouse’s bill—to a must-pass funding measure needed by the end of September to avert a government shutdown.
Last year, Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) introduced similar legislation into the U.S. Senate called Protecting America’s Agricultural Land from Foreign Harm Act. (S. 926).
Click HERE to read more about the Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act.