Congress expands foreign land-ownership scrutiny, bars foreign entities from farm subsidies
S. 886 — FARMLAND Act of 2025 · Filed by Joni Ernst (R-IA) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 6, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill strengthens federal oversight of foreign investment in U.S. agricultural land by amending the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978. It increases civil penalties for non-disclosure (from up to 25% to 5–25% of penalties), requires public naming of violators, mandates due diligence by real estate entities, creates a new federal investigator position to monitor compliance, establishes a public database of foreign-owned farmland, bars foreign persons from receiving Farm Service Agency subsidies, and grants the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) authority to review agricultural real estate purchases by foreign entities of concern (China, Russia, state sponsors of terrorism, and others) exceeding $5 million or 320 acres. The bill funds these activities with $35 million in 2025 and $9 million annually through 2029.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is to restrict foreign entities of concern from acquiring U.S. agricultural land and accessing farm subsidies while expanding federal investigative and disclosure authority. It is a national-security-framed regulatory expansion, not a market-friendly deregulation or a commemorative measure.
What the text implies
- The bill grants CFIUS authority to review and potentially block agricultural real estate transactions by foreign entities of concern, a power previously limited to foreign direct investment in critical infrastructure; this expands executive review authority over domestic real estate markets.
- Mandatory due diligence requirements on real estate agents, brokers, and title companies create a de facto compliance and reporting infrastructure that may expose these private entities to liability if they fail to detect foreign ownership.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
U.S. agricultural producers (protected from foreign competition and subsidy-access by foreign entiti; Department of Agriculture (expanded enforcement budget and personnel); Real estate compliance and legal services (due diligence and certification requirements)