S. 618 — Protecting America’s Agricultural Land from Foreign Harm Act of 2025

This section establishes definitions for terms used in the Act. (1) Agricultural land adopts the meaning of that term in section 9 of the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 3508)—i.e., land used for agricultural, forestry, or timber production as determined by USDA—and explicitly includes land so described that is used for ranching purposes; (2) covered person adopts the meaning of "person owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a foreign adversary" in 15 C.F.R. §7.2 (as in effect on enactment), but limited to persons associated with the governments of Iran, North Korea, the People's Republic of China, or the Russian Federation, excluding U.S. citizens and aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence; (3) Secretary means the Secretary of Agriculture; and (4) United States includes any State, territory, or possession of the United States.

This section directs the President, notwithstanding any other provision of law, to prohibit covered persons from purchasing or leasing (1) public agricultural land owned by the United States and administered by the Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Defense, or head of any other federal department or agency; or (2) private agricultural land located in the United States. The President may implement this prohibition using authorities under §§203 and 205 of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA; 50 U.S.C. 1702, 1704), with knowing violators subject to civil and criminal penalties under IEEPA §206 (50 U.S.C. 1705). A rule of construction specifies that the prohibition does not affect purchases or leases by non-covered persons, use of land transferred from covered persons to non-covered persons, or require covered persons to divest land owned or leased as of enactment.

This section directs the President to prohibit covered persons (i.e., persons associated with certain foreign governments, as defined in section 2) that own or lease U.S. agricultural land from participating in Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs, subject to exclusions for (1) programs relating to food inspection or other food safety regulatory requirements, or to health and labor safety of individuals; or (2) programs administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) with respect to this Act or the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA, 7 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), which requires foreign persons holding interests in U.S. agricultural land to report such holdings to USDA. To participate in an excluded program (other than under this Act or AFIDA), certain covered persons must submit proof to the Secretary of Agriculture that they qualify for the exclusion.

This section amends the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA), which requires foreign persons to report their acquisition or transfer of interests in U.S. agricultural land to the Secretary of Agriculture, as follows: (1) expands the definition of reportable "interest" to include security interests and leases (regardless of duration), eliminating the prior exclusion for security interests; (2) revises civil penalties for reporting violations to range from 15% to 30% of the interest's fair market value (from up to 25%) and requires the Secretary to place a lien on the relevant agricultural land upon imposing a penalty, to be released only upon payment; (3) requires the Secretary to publish human-readable and machine-readable public data sets—including all report data, purchase prices or consideration, updated land value estimates, and descriptions of foreign persons holding at least 1% interests (categorized as majority or minority owners)—in the internet database established under section 742 of division B of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, with updates within 30 days of receiving each report; and (4) expands the definition of "foreign person" to include any non-individual, nongovernmental entity issuing equity securities primarily traded on a securities exchange in Iran, North Korea, the People's Republic of China, or the Russian Federation.

This section requires three reports on foreign ownership of agricultural land. (1) Not later than one year after enactment and biennially thereafter, the Secretary of Agriculture must submit to Congress a report on risks and benefits of foreign ownership or lease of such land in rural areas (as defined in 42 U.S.C. 1490, generally areas with populations of 35,000 or fewer that lack mortgage credit for lower- and moderate-income families) and related issues, including misrepresentation in annual foreign holdings reports, monitoring of erroneous reporting under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA; 7 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), and the role of state and local governments, along with a plan to protect personally identifiable information. (2) Not later than one year after enactment and biennially thereafter, the Director of National Intelligence must submit to specified Senate and House committees and leaders (including Agriculture, Intelligence, and Foreign Relations/Affairs Committees; Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Financial Services; and congressional leadership) an unclassified report, with a possible classified annex, analyzing foreign malign influence in the U.S. agriculture industry by covered persons with foreign ownership and primary motives of foreign investors to acquire such land. (3) Not later than one year after enactment, the Comptroller General must submit to Congress a report reviewing AFIDA resources, staffing, expertise, enforcement issues, and recommended changes to the Act.