Congress mandates maps of foreign farm ownership, tightens China scrutiny
S. 4192 — PLOT Act of 2026 · Filed by Pete Ricketts (R-NE) · Introduced Mar 25, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires foreign investors in U.S. agricultural land to submit detailed geospatial maps showing exact property boundaries when they report their holdings under existing law. It lowers the reporting threshold for investors linked to foreign adversaries (especially China) from 10% to 5%, requires disclosure of any foreign-adversary-affiliated owners holding 5%+ stakes, and directs the Agriculture Department to prioritize enforcement against such transactions and refer national-security concerns to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is mandatory geospatial reporting and heightened scrutiny of foreign-adversary-linked agricultural acquisitions. It is a transparency and national-security measure, not a trade or economic policy bill.
What the text implies
- Geospatial data made public may enable targeting of foreign-owned agricultural assets by state or local actors, creating potential security or harassment risks for legitimate foreign investors.
- Prioritization of enforcement against China-linked entities may create disparate treatment under law and invite diplomatic friction, though justified on national-security grounds.
- CFIUS referral authority expands Agriculture Department's role in foreign-investment screening, potentially creating bottlenecks or inconsistent standards across agencies.
- Open-source GIS data accessibility may inadvertently reveal sensitive infrastructure proximity patterns to adversaries, despite national-security intent.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill strengthens public transparency and national-security oversight of foreign agricultural land ownership without restricting citizens' own rights or imposing new costs on the public. Ordinary Americans gain clearer information about who controls domestic farmland and benefit from heightened scrutiny of acquisitions by foreign adversaries.
Named in the bill
Secretary of Agriculture, Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), Director of National Intelligence, Secretary of Defense, People's Republic of China, Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978, 7 CFR 781.2, 15 CFR 791.2, 791.4
Where it stands
- Mar 25, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Mar 25, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $20,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 8 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Pete Ricketts, the sponsor, reported $1,983,558 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Afida Modernization Committee (informal Coalition) — $20,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,433 characters) on Aug 29, 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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