To foil foreign adversaries, the Agriculture Department should “take such steps as may be necessary” to prevent them from buying U.S. farmland, said the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, despite questions about whether the USDA has the authority to intrude on sales. “This is a very important step,” said Rep. Don Newhouse, sponsor of the legislative rider aimed at China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.
The farmland provision was part of the annual USDA-FDA spending bill that was approved on a party line 34-27 vote at the end of a nearly eight-hour committee session. The Republican majority defeated Democratic amendments to put more money into WIC for fruit and vegetable allowances, to restore a $2 billion fund for financially distressed farmers, and to maintain over-the-counter sales of mifepristone to people with a prescription for it. The bill would make mifepristone available only at medical offices.
“We’re not appropriating Monopoly money,” said Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, the Republican manager of the bill. “Some hard decisions had to be made.”
The bill allocated $17.8 billion in discretionary funding, said Harris, half what the White House requested and the lowest level since 2007. Some $8.15 billion was redirected from other accounts to buffer the impact, he said. Discretionary spending includes ag research, food safety, rural development, and land stewardship. When mandatory spending, such as SNAP and crop subsidies, are included, the USDA would spend more than $220 billion in fiscal 2024.
Appropriations chair Kay Granger of Texas said she would write government spending bills, including the USDA-FDA bill, below the levels agreed to in the debt limit bill early this month. “We’re already breaking the promises of two weeks ago,” said Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin.
The Appropriations Committee was the second powerful House panel in two days to clear legislation with language intended to fence foreign adversaries out of the U.S. farmland market for floor debate. The Ways and Means Committee approved a bill on Tuesday that would levy a 60 percent excise tax on purchases by citizens of and companies based in China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela.
“We must stop this threat before it is too late,” said Newhouse, a Republican from Washington State. Appropriators voted 34-26 to include nonresident aliens, business agents, and similar entities in directing the USDA to “take such actions as may be necessary to prohibit the purchase of agricultural land located in the United States by companies owned, in full or in part,” by China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.
“I worry about slippery-slope xenophobia,” said Rep. Grace Meng, a New York Democrat. Meng said the rider used “vague and overly broad language” that could make owners unduly suspicious of American buyers. Ohio Democrat Marcy Kaptur asked if the USDA had the authority to block sales. If not, “your amendment is effectively dead,” she said.
The Treasury Department oversees an interdepartmental committee that decides whether a foreign investment presents a national security risk. Republican Mike Simpson of Idaho said the USDA could alert the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States about problematic transactions, and Republican John Moolenaar of Michigan said the USDA should be made a CFIUS member.
During the bill drafting session, the committee approved a Harris amendment to reduce to $1 billion a funding cut for a new rural clean energy program that was originally set at $3.25 billion and another Harris amendment to convert the Renewable Energy for America Program, for energy efficiency and renewable power projects, to loan guarantees to buffer the impact of a $500 million cut.
To read a Republican summary of the bill, click here.
To read the text of the bill as presented to the committee, click here.