House Republicans may try to attach several bills to a must-pass funding measure needed by month’s end to avert a government shutdown. Among those is a ban on foreign adversaries owning U.S. farmland.
The ban on China and other foreign adversaries owning U.S. farmland, especially near sensitive military sites, is one of several riders that could come up on must-pass funding legislation. A farm bill extension is another. Washington State Republican Dan Newhouse introduced the Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act. Speaking earlier, he said “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.”
Newhouse would also ensure a continued seat at the table for USDA’s Secretary on the Treasury-led panel that oversees such buys. China is of special concern. Newhouse says, “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.”
Newhouse sits on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, chaired by Michigan’s John Moolenaar, who opposes a Chinese EV battery firm’s land buy in that state. Moolenaar said earlier that “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.”
China is thought to own just a few hundred thousand acres of U.S. farmland, but its closeness to U.S. military facilities has set off alarm bells in recent months.
Story by Matt Kaye/Berns Bureau; courtesy of NAFB News Service