Work being done on a farm. Courtesy, UF/IFAS photography Senate Agriculture Committee members Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), and
Senate Agriculture Committee members Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) are calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to enhance its system for electronic submission and retention of foreign-owned farmland disclosures.
This request comes in response to reported inaccuracies in data published online by the Farm Service Agency (FSA), as required under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA).
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“The current manual data entry process, which includes re-typing paper-filed reports into FSA systems, increases the risk of inaccurate and misleading information,” the senators wrote to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. “We’ve heard of cases where energy developers were wrongly identified as having ownership ties to sanctioned nations, when the investment actually came from U.S. allies. Such errors cause confusion and undermine the credibility of the FSA’s published data.”
The senators emphasized the importance of ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the information the USDA publishes, noting that inaccuracies could have serious implications for stakeholders and erode public trust in the reporting process.
Additional cosigners of the letter include Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.).
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The Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA), cosponsored by Grassley in 1978 while he served in the House of Representatives, mandates that foreign entities acquiring, selling, or holding interests in U.S. farmland must disclose these transactions.
Historically, these disclosures were submitted by hand, increasing the potential for human error. As part of the Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) funding, Congress streamlined the AFIDA process by introducing an internet-based system for electronic submissions. However, the USDA has yet to fully correct past errors from handwritten filings.
Senator Grassley has been a vocal advocate against foreign ownership of U.S. farmland. Earlier this year, he introduced the bipartisan Farmland Security Act, which would require all foreign investors, including shell companies, to report their holdings in U.S. farmland and would increase penalties for non-compliance.
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Grassley also introduced legislation that would give top U.S. agriculture officials a permanent role in reviewing transactions that could lead to foreign ownership of U.S. farmland, a provision that was incorporated into the FY24 funding package.
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