A bipartisan group of Senators has launched a new push to get USDA to improve the accuracy of foreign-owned farmland data.
The group, led by GOP Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst and Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman wrote Secretary Vilsack that FSA data on foreign holdings of U.S. farmland may be inaccurate. That’s due to manual data entry begun after a 1978 disclosure law.
However, Secretary Vilsack complained to lawmakers in March that Congress didn’t fund a switch this year to internet data entry, and even if it did there would still be issues.
Vilsack says USDA was moving ahead this year to take part in the Treasury-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., or ‘CFIUS,’ as approved in FY 2024 funding legislation.
The new letter pressing for greater data recording accuracy was cosigned by 11 senators from both parties, including Ag Chair and Democrat Debbie Stabenow. It follows new controversies over China farmland buys in Michigan and North Dakota near sensitive military installations.
