On June 23, 2025, the House passed the Agricultural Risk Review Act (H.R. 1713), a measure aimed at increasing governmental oversight of foreign acquisitions in U.S. agriculture, particularly in farmland. This legislation seeks to amend the Defense Protection Act of 1950 to require the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review transactions involving foreign investments in U.S. agriculture. The bill’s proponents argue that placing the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a permanent member of CFIUS will provide leverage to protect the interests of the agricultural industry in foreign investments and acquisitions of U.S. agricultural businesses and land.
Currently, no federal law restricts foreign persons from acquiring or holding U.S. agricultural land. While approximately twenty-eight states have specific prohibitions or limits on foreign ownership of agricultural land, the federal government’s role is primarily monitoring through the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) of 1978. AFIDA requires certain foreign persons to disclose their interests in U.S. farmland to USDA. However, there is no federal law that imposes a restriction on the amount of farmland that can be foreign-owned.
The passage of H.R. 1713 would codify USDA as a CFIUS member with both review and decision-making authority. This move comes on the heels of the USDA’s release of the National Farm Security Action Plan, which outlines its intent to formalize a role in reviewing farmland-related transactions in coordination with CFIUS. The plan anticipates a joint Memorandum of Agreement between USDA and CFIUS to authorize this role, but H.R. 1713 would go further by codifying USDA’s involvement.
CFIUS is an interagency committee headed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, authorized to review certain transactions involving foreign investments and acquisitions of American companies and real estate to determine whether a transaction presents a threat to U.S. national security. Investments and acquisitions that could give a foreign person control over a U.S. business or pose a threat to national security are known as “covered transactions.” CFIUS has the power to renegotiate, enforce, and impose conditions on covered transactions that could potentially impair U.S. national security. The Committee also makes recommendations to the President on whether to suspend or prohibit a transaction.
In March 2024, President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) of 2024, which included a provision authorizing USDA to participate in CFIUS reviews on a case-by-case basis for transactions involving foreign purchases of U.S. agricultural land. H.R. 1713 builds on this by proposing to make USDA a permanent member of CFIUS for all relevant agricultural transactions and to require CFIUS review of acquisitions involving countries the federal government deems a “foreign adversary.”
Under H.R. 1713, USDA will be added as a member of CFIUS for transactions involving U.S. agriculture, including agricultural land, biotechnology companies, and agricultural businesses involved in transportation, storage, or processing of agricultural products. The legislation authorizes USDA to evaluate certain foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land to determine whether a CFIUS review of the transaction is necessary. USDA is authorized to notify CFIUS of any “reportable agricultural land transaction,” defined as a transaction that USDA “has reason to believe is a covered transaction” or a transaction that involves the investment or acquisition of U.S. agricultural land by a “foreign adversary” person, which includes foreign individuals, business entities, and governments of China, North Korea, Russia, or Iran.
The legislation also links its definition of reportable agricultural land transactions to those that require an AFIDA report. Any foreign individual, entity, or government, including domestic entities in which a foreign person has “significant interest or substantial control” of a domestic entity, is required to disclose certain information concerning their investments and acquisitions in U.S. agricultural land. H.R. 1713 authorizes USDA to notify CFIUS of any investment in U.S. agricultural land by a foreign person from any country if the transaction requires the filing of an AFIDA report, regardless of whether the filing was actually made.
Once CFIUS receives notice of a reportable agricultural land transaction, H.R. 1713 requires CFIUS to determine whether the transaction is a covered transaction. If CFIUS concludes the transaction is a covered transaction, CFIUS must then determine whether they should initiate a review or some other investigative measure to determine the threat the transaction poses to U.S. national security. As a member of CFIUS, USDA will be involved in the decision-making process to