The federal government is failing to reliably track foreign purchases of American agricultural land and identify national security risks, according to a new watchdog report Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) does not have real-time, publicly available data on foreign agricultural land investments and only shares data once a year under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA), a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) states. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Second-Largest Foreign Owner Of US Land Is A Chinese Communist Party Member)
READ THE REPORT:
“The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) does not share timely data on foreign investments in agricultural land collected under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978, as amended (AFIDA),” the report begins.
Government agencies such as the Treasury Department and Department of Defense (DOD) are among the agencies tasked with identifying foreign land purchases for potential national security risks. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) an interagency committee lead by the Treasury Department, is authorized with reviewing foreign investments to identify national security concerns.
Foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land span approximately 40 million acres and can pose threats to American national security when the land is near sensitive military installments, the report says. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: CCP-Tied Firm Slated To Build Massive Facility Near Sensitive US Military Sites)
USDA’s process for collecting data under AFIDA is difficult to implement and the USDA is currently unable to provide Congress and the public with reliable, up-to-speed data, the GAO found. The agency lacks a process for checking whether its AFIDA data is accurate and complete.
“USDA implements AFIDA across field offices and headquarters, but its processes to collect, track, and report key information are flawed. USDA collects the required data on paper forms with county or federal offices and reviews them for accuracy, according to USDA officials. However, its processes to do so are unclear and challenging to implement,” the report asserts.
“But without improving its internal processes, USDA cannot report reliable information to Congress or the public about where and how much U.S. agricultural land is held by foreign persons.”
USDA does not have a timeline for modernizing its database because of the project’s lack of funding, the report says, citing officials. The agency requested $10 million over five years and $1 million for AFIDA in its fiscal year 2024 budget.
GAO is recommending the USDA provide CFIUS agencies with detailed AFIDA data, improve the reliability of AFIDA data and determine whether it will be able to create a public database for the data.
“USDA does not regularly review and validate its data to improve its accuracy and completeness, and it could derive more results with additional efforts to determine how many foreign persons fail to file (nonfilers),” the report concludes.
“Despite the limitations of AFIDA data, sharing these data could assist CFIUS in its efforts to identify foreign investments in agricultural land that may pose national security risks. But without accurate data and transparent reporting, USDA cannot provide reliable information to CFIUS, Congress, or the public about where and how much U.S. agricultural land is held by foreign persons.”