[ad_1]
The Biden administration is failing to correctly track overseas ownership of U.S. farmlands and does not seem to have a plan to start monitoring that information, in accordance to an investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
According to a GAO report detailing the findings of its investigation, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) has failed to constantly share well timed information on overseas investments in U.S. agricultural land as required beneath the 1978 Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA). Further, Pentagon officers advised investigators, in accordance to the report, that USDA wants to frequently present extra up-to-date and particular AFIDA information.
“Sharing current data could help increase visibility into potential national security risks related to foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land,” the GAO report, which was printed late Thursday, states. “USDA implements AFIDA across field offices and headquarters, but its processes to collect, track, and report key information are flawed.”
The GAO investigation concluded that USDA collects AFIDA information on paper types filed with county or federal places of work, however that its course of is “unclear and challenging to implement.” And USDA additionally has no plans and timelines to create an internet AFIDA database regardless of Congress mandating the company create one by 2025.
GOP BILL TO SAFEGUARD US AGRICULTURE FROM CHINA ADVANCES WITH HEAVY BIPARTISAN SUPPORT
President Joe Biden speaks throughout a digital assembly on the White House alongside Agriculture Tom Vilsack in 2022. (Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)
Finally, the federal government watchdog company’s assessment of AFIDA information — the latest of which is from 2021 — discovered the USDA has printed errors comparable to reporting the most important land holding related to China twice.
“This report confirms one of our worst fears: that not only is the USDA unable to answer the question of who owns what land and where, but that there is no plan by the department to internally reverse this dangerous flaw that affects our supply chain and economy,” Congressional Western Caucus Chairman Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., stated. “Food security is national security, and we cannot allow foreign adversaries to influence our food supply while we stick our heads in the sand.”
“I will, in my capacity as a member of the Select Committee on the CCP, Chairman of the Western Caucus, and as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, be working to introduce measures aimed at fixing USDA’s internal reporting and data management to identify to Congress, and the American people, exactly who is investing in the over 40 million acres of U.S. farm land reported to have ties to foreign actors,” he continued.
CCP-TIED EV COMPANY BACKED BY DEMS BUYS UP MICHIGAN LAND MILES FROM US MILITARY BASES
In latest months, Republican lawmakers and native leaders nationwide have elevated scrutiny on land purchases by overseas traders. The rising quantity of land purchases has sparked concern that overseas corporations and traders, notably these from China, could also be establishing a stranglehold of key U.S. meals and vitality provides.
“China’s ownership of U.S. farmland is a threat to our food security and national security. An affordable, reliable food supply is critical to our nation’s well-being and prosperity and we must ensure America maintains control of our nation’s resources,” Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., stated in 2022 after requesting the GAO investigation. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc through Getty Images)
USDA’s most up-to-date information means that, as of 2021, overseas funding in U.S. agricultural land grew to roughly 40 million acres. Additionally, Chinese agricultural funding within the U.S. elevated tenfold between 2009 and 2016 alone.
The obvious development led to House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., main a letter to GAO Comptroller General Gene Dodaro signed by practically 130 fellow House Republicansin October 2022, requesting a probe into overseas funding in U.S. farmland and its “impact on national security, trade, and food security.”
“Growing foreign ownership of U.S. farmland, particularly by China, poses a direct threat to our food security and national security,” Thompson and Comer stated in a joint assertion Thursday.
“Safeguarding our farmland and food supply requires a whole of government approach and we will continue to work with the impacted agencies, related committees, and leadership to continue our robust oversight and to identify legislative vehicles to address the findings of the GAO report,” they added.
Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., delivers remarks on the Capitol on May 30, 2023. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP through Getty Images)
In February 2023, officers in Grand Forks, North Dakota, rejected a Chinese firm’s proposed corn mill that obtained vital native pushback over issues about its proximity to a U.S. Air Force base within the space. While the corporate, Chinese-owned Fufeng Group, was ready to buy 300 acres of land within the space, the native authorities rejected its constructing permits, successfully killing the mission.
Air Force Assistant Secretary Andrew Hunter stated prior to the Grand Forks City Council choice that the mission would pose a “significant threat” to nationwide safety, however that the Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) concluded it didn’t have jurisdiction within the case. CFIUS is an interagency taskforce overseen by the Department of the Treasury and tasked with reviewing sure overseas investments that will pose a nationwide safety risk.
NEARLY 200 DEMS JOIN REPUBLICANS IN BLOCKING CHINA FROM BUYING RURAL LAND
In addition, a subsidiary of Chinese inexperienced vitality agency Gotion High-Tech bought 270 acres of land, together with some zoned for agricultural use, in Green Charter Township, Michigan, in August. The land is slated to be used to construct an electrical car battery part manufacturing unit, however is positioned inside 60 miles of navy armories and inside 100 miles from Camp Grayling, the most important U.S. National Guard coaching facility within the nation.
Like its dedication within the Fufeng Group case, CFIUS dominated in April 2023 that Gotion’s plans in Michigan aren’t lined transactions.
“The process to report and track foreign-owned agricultural land is complex and is governed by a 46 year-old law that depends on self-reporting by foreign buyers and sellers of U.S. agricultural land,” a USDA spokesperson advised Fox News Digital. “To fulfill our obligations under the law, USDA gathers information from the more than 3,000 counties and county equivalents in the United States, each with their own county clerk and recorder’s office — or none at all — feeding information into more than 50 different state systems.”
“The GAO’s recommendations would require changes by Congress, starting with the funding needed to increase staff and modernize our processes, in addition to a change in data collection mandates down to the county level,” they stated. “Any system for tracking land purchases and owners would be complicated, expensive, and create a potential risk to producer privacy, the price of agricultural land, and individual American seller interests.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Meanwhile, the report was coincidentally printed simply hours after Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack met with Chinese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Tang Renjian.
“I look forward to further exchanges and cooperation as we continue to forge a relationship that expands and improves market access opportunities for U.S. farmers and ranchers in China, an important agricultural export market,” Vilsack stated.
[ad_2]
Source hyperlink