March 23, 2023 | Bipartisan Senators introduce Bill prohibiting purchase of U.S. farmland by foreign adversaries |
Responding to the need to safeguard American farmland and national security interests, on Wednesday, March 22nd, Senators Braun, Tester, Rubio, and Tuberville introduced ‘‘Protecting America’s Agricultural Land from Foreign Harm Act of 2023’’.
“The surge of foreign-owned agricultural land in the U.S. demonstrates the need to keep our top foreign adversaries out of our agricultural supply chains. We must increase federal oversight of foreign investments in agricultural land, especially from Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. Our food and national security must be prioritized and protected from bad actors. I’m proud to support this legislation to safeguard our agricultural industry and national interests.”—Sen. Tuberville
Link To Bill HERE
According to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, ownership of U.S. farmland by China increased more than 20-fold from $81 million in 2010 to $1.8 billion in 2020.
“Foreign adversaries, including the Chinese Communist Party, should never be allowed to control Americans’ agricultural lands or our food supply. We cannot allow these regimes to continue exploiting the openness of our system. This bipartisan legislation is an important step to protect our national security interests.”—Sen. Rubio
The press release states that the Act “would prohibit the purchase or lease of agricultural land in the United States by those associated with the governments of Iran, North Korea, China and Russia. It also prohibits their participation in the USDA agricultural programs for farmers.”
Also See
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“Air Force would have little ability to detect any electronic surveillance on drone and satellite transmissions being conducted from the Chinese property. “Passive collection of those signals would be undetectable, as the requirements to do so would merely require ordinary antennas tuned to the right collecting frequencies,” he wrote. “This introduces a grave vulnerability to our Department of Defense installations and is incredibly compromising to US National Security.” Link
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Link To Full Press Release Here
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