[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6469 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 6469

To amend the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 to 
 remove the limitation on the amount of a civil penalty, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 21, 2023

Ms. Perez (for herself, Mr. Moolenaar, and Mr. Johnson of South Dakota) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                              Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 to 
 remove the limitation on the amount of a civil penalty, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Farmland Security Act of 2023''.

SEC. 2. IMPROVING AGRICULTURAL FOREIGN INVESTMENT DISCLOSURE.

    (a) Civil Penalty.--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.''; 
                and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(c) Penalty for Shell Corporations.--
            ``(1) Definition of shell corporation.--In this subsection, 
        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.
            ``(2) Amount of penalty.--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.
            ``(3) Nonapplication of 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.''.
    (b) Investigative Actions.--Section 4 of the Agricultural Foreign 
Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 3503) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``The Secretary'' and inserting the 
        following:
    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(b) Audit.--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.
    ``(c) Training.--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.''.
    (c) Reports.--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:

``SEC. 6. REPORTS.

    ``(a) To States.--Not later than''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(b) To Congress.--
            ``(1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date 
        of enactment of the Farmland Security Act of 2023, and annually 
        thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report 
        describing the results of the research carried out under 
        paragraph (2).
            ``(2) Research.--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.''.
    (d) Authorization of Appropriations.--The Agricultural Foreign 
Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) is amended by 
adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 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 2023 through 2028.''.
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