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Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Feb 26, 2025
Farmland Security Act of 2025
This bill authorizes increased civil penalties for violations of the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA) and increases Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversight of and research into foreign investment in agricultural land. As background, AFIDA and the regulations that implemented the act require foreign investors who acquire, transfer, or hold an interest in U.S. agricultural land to report such holdings and transactions to USDA.
In general, the bill allows USDA to determine an appropriate civil penalty amount for an AFIDA violation by removing the cap that currently prohibits the civil penalty from exceeding 25% of the fair market value of the interest in the agricultural land associated with the violation.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
Under an exception in the bill, the civil penalty for a foreign-owned shell corporation is 100% of the fair market value of the interest in the agricultural land. The bill defines a shell corporation to include a company, association, firm, partnership, society, joint stock company, trust, or estate that has no or nominal operations. The penalty does not apply if the shell corporation remedies a defective filing or failure to file within 60 days of USDA providing notice.
USDA must conduct annual compliance audits of at least 10% of the reports. Further, USDA must provide state and county-level personnel certain annual training.
USDA must also annually conduct research and submit a report to Congress on foreign investment in agricultural land, including trends in the purchase of U.S. agricultural land by foreign-owned shell corporations.
People & committees
Rep. Perez, Marie Gluesenkamp [D-WA-3] · D–WA
Legislative record
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Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We also preserved the text version used in the PlainBill explanation below.
Source last updated: Dec 5, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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PlainBill explanation
Based on the full Introduced in House · 2025-02-26 text. This explanation has not received human editorial review. This overview describes the proposal’s major provisions; it does not establish what its real-world effects would be.
This bill would change penalties and oversight for foreign investment in agricultural land. Foreign-owned entities with little or no operations could face a penalty equal to the full market value of their land interest for a disclosure violation. Shell corporations would avoid civil penalties if they corrected missing or defective filings within 60 days after notice. The bill would also require annual disclosure audits and research on foreign agricultural investment.
the term shell corporation means a corporation, company, association, firm, partnership, society, joint stock company, trust, estate, or any other legal entity that has no or nominal operations.
The amount of a civil penalty under subsection (a) for a foreign-owned shell corporation, as determined by the Secretary, shall be 100 percent of the fair market value, on the date of the assessment of the penalty, of the interest in agricultural land with respect to which the violation occurred.
A shell corporation shall not be subject to a civil penalty under this section if the shell corporation remedies a defective filing or failure to file not later than 60 days after the Secretary provides notice to the shell corporation of the defective filing or failure to file.
The Secretary shall conduct an annual compliance audit of not less than 10 percent of the reports submitted under section 2 for the year covered by the audit
The Secretary shall carry out research on— (A) the agricultural leasing activities in the United States of foreign persons, including the impact of those activities on family farms, rural communities, and the domestic food supply;
Section 1 would name the legislation the Farmland Security Act of 2025.
This Act may be cited as the Farmland Security Act of 2025.
Section 2(a) would define a shell corporation broadly to include companies, partnerships, trusts, estates and other legal entities with no or minimal operations. For a foreign-owned shell corporation, as determined by the Secretary, the civil penalty would equal 100% of the market value of the agricultural land interest involved in the violation, valued when the penalty is assessed.
the term shell corporation means a corporation, company, association, firm, partnership, society, joint stock company, trust, estate, or any other legal entity that has no or nominal operations.
The amount of a civil penalty under subsection (a) for a foreign-owned shell corporation, as determined by the Secretary, shall be 100 percent of the fair market value, on the date of the assessment of the penalty, of the interest in agricultural land with respect to which the violation occurred.
A shell corporation would be exempt from civil penalties under the amended penalty section if it corrected a defective filing or failure to file within 60 days after the Secretary notified it. The exception is written to cover penalties under that section, rather than only the new 100% penalty.
A shell corporation shall not be subject to a civil penalty under this section if the shell corporation remedies a defective filing or failure to file not later than 60 days after the Secretary provides notice to the shell corporation of the defective filing or failure to file.
Section 2(a) would also delete the second sentence of the existing penalty subsection (a), revise subsection (b) to recognize the new shell-corporation rules, and remove language following “Act,” in subsection (b). The supplied bill does not reproduce the deleted language, so its full effect on existing penalties cannot be determined from this bundle.
Section 3 of the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 3502) is amended— (1) in subsection (a), by striking the second sentence; (2) in subsection (b)— (A) by striking The amount and inserting Except as provided in subsection (c), the amount; and (B) by striking Act, and all that follows through the period at the end and inserting Act.;
Section 2(b) would require the Secretary to audit at least 10% of the disclosure reports submitted for each year, checking their completeness and accuracy. Consultation with other federal agency heads would be permitted, but not required.
The Secretary shall conduct an annual compliance audit of not less than 10 percent of the reports submitted under section 2 for the year covered by the audit to ensure the completeness and accuracy of reports submitted under that section. In conducting, such audit, the Secretary may consult with such other heads of such other Federal agencies as the Secretary determines appropriate.
The Secretary would have to provide annual training for state and county personnel on identifying agricultural land for which a foreign person was required to submit a report but did not.
The Secretary shall provide annual training to State and county-level personnel relating to identifying agricultural land for which— (1) a report is required to be submitted under section 2; but (2) no report has been submitted by the applicable foreign person.
Section 2(c) would require research on foreign agricultural leasing and its effects on family farms, rural communities and the domestic food supply; agricultural land purchases by foreign-owned shell corporations; and foreign ownership of agricultural production capacity and participation in U.S. agricultural economic activity. The bill requires investigation of these subjects without establishing what the effects are.
The Secretary shall carry out research on— (A) the agricultural leasing activities in the United States of foreign persons, including the impact of those activities on family farms, rural communities, and the domestic food supply; (B) trends relating to the purchase of agricultural land in the United States by foreign-owned shell corporations; and (C) foreign ownership of agricultural production capacity and foreign participation in agricultural economic activity in the United States.
The Secretary would have to report the research results to Congress within 180 days after enactment and annually thereafter. The reporting requirement specifies no end date.
Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of the Farmland Security Act of 2025, and annually thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report describing the results of the research carried out under paragraph (2).
Section 2(d) would authorize Congress to provide $2 million for each fiscal year from 2025 through 2030 to carry out the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act. This authorization would not itself provide the money, and the specified funding years do not establish an end date for the other requirements.
The Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 11. Authorization of appropriations There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry out this Act $2,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2030.
The supplied official-actions snapshot, updated December 5, 2025, records introduction in the House and referral to the House Committee on Agriculture on February 26, 2025. It does not establish subsequent legislative action or enactment.
Source snapshot updated 2025-12-05T22:01:02Z. 2025-02-26: Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture. 2025-02-26: Introduced in House
A closer look
Reviewed version: Introduced in House · 2025-02-26. These findings describe provisions and who may benefit; they are not judgments of waste, corruption, or motive.
This review covers the supplied bill text. “None identified” does not rule out provisions in later versions or accompanying reports and disclosures.
Provisions outside the bill’s main subject, or policy changes attached to appropriations.
None identified in the reviewed text
No unrelated provision or policy change attached to appropriations was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion does not establish what appears in other versions or accompanying materials.
Spending directed to particular recipients or places outside ordinary competitive or formula-based allocation.
None identified in the reviewed text
No congressionally directed spending for particular recipients or places was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish formal earmark status in absent accompanying materials.
Narrow exceptions, exemptions, or preferential treatment that warrant a closer look.
Findings to examine
The supplied text contains an entity-specific penalty exemption tied to correcting disclosure violations. Identifying this narrow exception is not a judgment about its justification.
Shell corporations—entities with no or minimal operations—would receive an express exemption from civil penalties under the amended penalty section if they corrected a missing or defective filing within 60 days after notice. This benefits a narrowly defined class of filers and directly qualifies the bill's enhanced penalty for foreign-owned shell corporations.
the term shell corporation means a corporation, company, association, firm, partnership, society, joint stock company, trust, estate, or any other legal entity that has no or nominal operations.
The amount of a civil penalty under subsection (a) for a foreign-owned shell corporation, as determined by the Secretary, shall be 100 percent of the fair market value, on the date of the assessment of the penalty, of the interest in agricultural land with respect to which the violation occurred.
A shell corporation shall not be subject to a civil penalty under this section if the shell corporation remedies a defective filing or failure to file not later than 60 days after the Secretary provides notice to the shell corporation of the defective filing or failure to file.
Full text preserved for this analysis. Legislative record snapshot: Dec 5, 2025. How PlainBill uses AI