Interior gets a seat at the foreign investment table for U.S. lands
H.R. 7074 — Keeping Public Lands Out of Adversarial Hands Act · Filed by Dan Newhouse (R-WA) · 13 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 14, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill adds the Secretary of the Interior to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) when reviewing foreign land acquisitions, and requires the committee to evaluate whether purchases of U.S. land or resources by citizens or entities from China, North Korea, Russia, or Iran pose national security risks. The provision sunsets when those countries are removed from the federal list of foreign adversaries.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is straightforward: it expands CFIUS membership and triggers review of foreign land acquisitions by adversarial nations. This is a governance and national security measure, not a tax, subsidy, or deregulation.
What the text implies
- The bill does not define 'land or resources' with precision, potentially creating ambiguity about what transactions trigger Interior Secretary notification and CFIUS review.
- The sunset clause ties termination to removal from the foreign adversaries list (15 CFR 791.4), meaning the provision persists indefinitely unless that regulatory list is formally amended.
- Adding Interior to CFIUS may slow foreign investment review timelines if Interior's input is required before committee action, though the bill does not specify procedural deadlines.
- The bill targets four named countries but does not address other potential adversaries or state-sponsored entities, creating a potential gap in coverage.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill strengthens oversight of foreign acquisition of sensitive U.S. land and natural resources by adding expertise from the Interior Department, which manages vast federal holdings. This enhances national security review without restricting citizens' rights or creating new private-sector carve-outs.
Named in the bill
Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), Secretary of the Interior, Defense Production Act of 1950, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, People's Republic of China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Russian Federation — and 1 more
Where it stands
13 cosponsors: 13 Republicans.
- Jan 14, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 14, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Foreign Affairs and House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committees on Energy and Commerce…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,327 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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