S. 4821 — Introduced in Senate

II 117th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 4821 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES September 12, 2022Mr. Lankford (for himself and Mr. Inhofe) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry A BILL To increase oversight of foreign direct investment in agricultural land in the United States, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Security and Oversight for International Landholdings Act of 2022 or the SOIL Act of 2022. 2. Review by Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States of certain agricultural real estate transactions Section 721(a)(4) of the Defense Production Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4565(a)(4)) is amended— (1) in subparagraph (A)— (A) in clause (i), by striking ; and and inserting a semicolon; (B) in clause (ii), by striking the period at the end and inserting ; and; and (C) by adding at the end the following: (iii) any transaction described in subparagraph (B)(vi) proposed or pending on or after the date of the enactment of this clause. ; and (2) in subparagraph (B), by adding at the end the following: (vi) Any acquisition or transfer of an interest, other than a security, in agricultural land held by a person that is a national of, or is organized under the laws or otherwise subject to the jurisdiction of, a country— (I) designated as a nonmarket economy country pursuant to section 771(18) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1677(18)); or (II) identified as a country that poses a risk to the national security of the United States in the most recent annual report on worldwide threats issued by the Director of National Intelligence pursuant to section 108B of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3043b)(commonly known as the Annual Threat Assessment). . 3. Expansion of membership in Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States Section 721(k)(2) of the Defense Production Act of 1950 (50 U.S.C. 4565(k)(2)) is amended— (1) by redesignating subparagraphs (H), (I), and (J), as subparagraphs (I), (J), and (K), respectively; and (2) inserting after subparagraph (G), the following new subparagraph: (H) The Secretary of Agriculture. . 4. Prohibition on use of funds for certain agricultural real estate holdings No assistance, including subsidies, may be provided by any Federal agency to a person for an agricultural real estate holding wholly or partly owned by a person that is a national of, or is organized under the laws or otherwise subject to the jurisdiction of, a country— (1) designated as a nonmarket economy country pursuant to section 771(18) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1677(18)); or (2) identified as a country that poses as risk to the national security of the United States in the most recent annual report on worldwide threats issued by the Director of National Intelligence pursuant to section 108B of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3043b)(commonly known as the Annual Threat Assessment). 5. Disclosure requirements for foreign agricultural real estate holdings (a) Reporting requirements Section 2(a) of the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 3501(a)) is amended— (1) in the first sentence of the matter preceding paragraph (1)— (A) by inserting , or enters into a leasing agreement the period of which is longer than 5 years with respect to agricultural land, after agricultural land; and (B) by striking acquisition or transfer and inserting acquisition, transfer, or lease; and (2) in paragraph (4), by striking acquired or transferred and inserting acquired, transferred, or leased. (b) Revocation of minimum acreage requirement Section 9(1) of the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 3508(1)) is amended by inserting , subject to the condition that the Secretary may not exclude land from this definition based on the acreage of the land before the semicolon at the end. 6. Reports of holdings of agricultural land in the United States by foreign persons Section 6 of the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 3505) is amended— (1) by striking the section designation and heading and all that follows through Not later than and inserting the following: 6. Reports (a) Transmission of reports to States Not later than ; and (2) by adding at the end the following: (b) Annual report (1) In general Annually, the Secretary shall prepare and make publicly available a report describing holdings of agricultural land by foreign persons, as determined by reports submitted under section 2, including— (A) an analysis of the countries with the most extensive agricultural land holdings on a State-by-State and county-by-county basis; (B) data and an analysis of agricultural land holdings in each county in the United States by a foreign person from— (i) the People’s Republic of China; (ii) the Russian Federation; or (iii) any other country that the Secretary determines to be appropriate; and (C) an analysis of the sectors and industries for which the agricultural land holdings are used. (2) Transmission to States The Secretary shall transmit the report prepared under paragraph (1) to each State department of agriculture or appropriate State agency described in subsection (a) in conjunction with the applicable reports transmitted under that subsection. .