Hoosier State Today

On September 11, 2024, Senator Mike Braun acknowledged the passage of the House version of the Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024, led by Representative Dan Newhouse. The Senate bill was spearheaded by Senator Braun and Senator Tommy Tuberville and co-sponsored by Senators Joe Manchin, Tom Cotton, Jon Tester, Roger Marshall, John Fetterman, Chuck Grassley, Marsha Blackburn, Pete Ricketts, John Barrasso, Katie Britt, Tammy Baldwin, Todd Young, Deb Fischer, Joni Ernst, and Cynthia Lummis.

The legislation aims to add the Secretary of Agriculture to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), enhancing scrutiny over foreign acquisitions of U.S. farmland and agricultural industries. It specifically targets farmland purchases by foreign adversaries such as China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran for CFIUS review. According to the USDA data cited in the discussion surrounding this bill, over 43.4 million acres of U.S. agricultural land are currently foreign-owned.

Senator Braun emphasized the importance of this legislative step: "The Protecting American Agriculture from Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024 has now passed the House bringing us one step closer to protecting American farmland from foreign adversaries. Now it’s time to pass my bipartisan Senate version."

The bill has garnered support from several key agricultural organizations including the Indiana Farm Bureau, American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA), Indiana Corn Growers Association (ICGA), and National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA).