By Jerry Bohnen
OK Energy Today
WASHINGTON – Efforts of Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas (R-Cheyenne) to protect U.S. farmland from foreign ownership, especially by Communist China, came to fruition recently.
President Biden signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes Lucas’s bill, the Agricultural Risk Review Act (House Resolution 3378).
H.R. 3378 adds the Secretary of Agriculture as a permanent member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
“With an increasing amount of potentially hostile foreign investment in U.S. farmland, protecting America’s agriculture industry becomes more and more paramount to our national security. That’s why including the Secretary of Agriculture as a member of CFIUS is long overdue,” Lucas said.
“As a fifth-generation farmer and rancher who’s seen this issue grow in concern, I’ve spent years to have this legislation see the light of day. So I applaud my colleagues in the House and Senate for bringing this longstanding priority of mine to President Biden’s desk.”
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, who chairs the House Financial Services Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance and International Financial Institutions, called the Act an “important reform.”
The Agricultural Risk Review Act adds the Secretary of Agriculture as a permanent member to the CFIUS for any transactions related to the purchase of agriculture land, agricultural biotechnology, or any other transaction related to the U.S. agriculture industry, as determined by the USDA Secretary.
CFIUS is chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury, and members of the committee include the heads of the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Commerce, Defense, State, Energy, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and the Office of Science & Technology Policy.
During a House Agriculture Committee hearing earlier this year, USDA Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack discussed the implications of a permanent placement of the USDA Secretary on CFIUS, saying, “Being a permanent member would allow us to educate the other members of CFIUS what to look for and what to be sensitive to when it comes to agriculture and agricultural production.”