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1 1 (January 24, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govekiv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service Inforrning the Iegislative debate since 1914 0 Updated January 24, 2023 Foreign Ownership and Holdings of U.S. Agricultural Land The 117th Congress introduced a range of proposals to restrict foreign investment and ownership in the U.S. food and agriculture sector and enacted certain new reporting requirements for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) related to disclosure of foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural lands. The 118th Congress might consider these or related proposals during the next farm bill debate. Existing Federal Requirements Current federal law imposes no restrictions on the amount of private U.S. agricultural land that can be foreign-owned. Federal law, however, requires foreign persons and entities to disclose to USDA information related to foreign investment and ownership of U.S. agricultural land. The Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA; P.L. 95-460, 7 U.S.C. §§3501-3508), as implemented by USDA, established a nationwide system for collecting information pertaining to foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land, defined as land used for forestry production, farming, ranching, or timber production (7 U.S.C. 3508; 7 C.F.R. §781.2). AFIDA defines a foreign person to include any individual, corporation, company, association, partnership, society, joint stock company, trust, estate, or any other legal entity (including any foreign government) under the laws of a foreign government or with a principal place of business outside the United States. The regulations require foreign persons who buy, sell, or gain interest in U.S. agricultural land to disclose their holdings and transactions to USDA directly or to the Farm Service Agency county office where the land is located. Failure to disclose this information may result in penalties and fines. After the original disclosure (Form FSA-153), each subsequent change of ownership or use must be reported. USDA compiles these data, with the most recent AFIDA report covering 2021. Foreign persons or entities may be eligible for certain USDA farm program benefits if they meet the same requirements as domestic persons or entities. Specifically, they must be considered actively engaged in farming (7 U.S.C. §1308-1), meaning they are either farming the land or landlords renting land under a crop-share agreement. They also must have the requisite U.S. taxpayer ID and meet the program's eligibility requirements. Other criteria may apply, such as limits on the entity's adjusted gross income. Current law imposes no restrictions on foreign persons or entities with respect to eligibility for crop and livestock insurance premium subsidies. Some programs make no distinction about a producer's or owner's citizenship (e.g., the Dairy Margin Coverage program), and other programs have no explicit citizenship requirement (e.g., the U.S. sugar program). Foreign persons or entities are not eligible for permanent disaster assistance programs; the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program explicitly prohibits payments to foreign entities other than resident aliens. See CRS Report R46248, U.S. Farm Programs: Eligibility and Payment Limits and USDA's fact sheet, Payment Eligibility and Payment Limitations. Existing State Requirements Some states and localities have instituted restrictions on foreign ownership of farmland. An overview of state laws by researchers at the University of Arkansas's National Agricultural Law Center shows that no U.S. state has instituted an absolute prohibition on foreign ownership. However, some states limit or have proposed to prohibit certain foreign persons and entities from acquiring or owning an interest in agricultural land within their state, and several states have separate disclosure requirements within their state (Figure 1). USDA has identified 339 counties in Iowa, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin as having the strictest prohibitions on foreign ownership of agricultural land and other nonagricultural real estate. There is no single uniform approach under state laws to addressing foreign ownership. Some general categories include restrictions on the amount of land that can be owned or the duration of ownership; distinctions involving private versus public land or how agricultural land is defined; distinctions involving resident/nonresident aliens; inheritance considerations involving land ownership; restrictions on ownership by foreign corporations (e.g., corporate farming laws or requirements corporations are subject to in order to obtain license or register); and differences related to enforcement and penalties. Figure I. Overview of Selected State Laws Related to Foreign Ownership of U.S. Agricultural Land expressly allows is slent prohibits/restricts Source: CRS using data from National Agricultural Law Center, at https://nationalaglawcenter.org/state-compilations/aglandownership/, as depicted at https://nalcpro.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/ uploads//assets/Webinars/Foreign-Land-Ownership.pdf.

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