President Joe Biden signed into law March 9 an FY 2024 six-bill appropriations package that adds the agriculture secretary to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to review agricultural transactions.

The compromise six-bill appropriations package that congressional negotiators unveiled March 3 contains $191 million for the Bureau of Industry and Security in FY 2024, the same as the FY 2023 enacted level and $31 million below the Biden administration’s request.

A congressional proposal to allow the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to reopen or alter previously mitigated transactions when national security risks have increased would discourage foreign investment in the United States, an expert at the Center for a New American Security said in written comments posted Jan. 4.

The House Financial Services Committee this week advanced a bill that would make USDA a permanent member of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. The Agricultural Security Risk Review Act, which passed the committee with bipartisan support, would address an “overdue” oversight in making the agency a formal part of all CFIUS reviews, Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., said during a Sept. 20 committee markup. “While CFIUS is indeed a committee, it benefits from expertise and particular member agencies with relevant expertise,” he said. “Agriculture is too important to go neglected.”

The Congressional Research Service this month issued an updated version of its overview of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. The report notes Congress is proposing legislation to expand CFIUS jurisdiction over certain land purchases and potentially add the USDA secretary as a permanent member of the committee (see 2307280052 and 2307180022). CRS listed several items Congress should be considering, such as how the Treasury Department will implement any “new agriculture-related responsibilities in regulation and practice”; how “sufficient are CFIUS’ current authorities” now that five years have passed since the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act was enacted; and how the Commerce Department’s process of identifying emerging and foundational technologies for export controls is “facilitating or hindering CFIUS reviews of transactions related to such technologies.”

The U.S. needs to better protect agricultural technology from Chinese theft and push Beijing to reduce tariffs on U.S. crops, American farmers told lawmakers last week. Speaking during a panel in Iowa organized by the House Select Committee on China, at least one farmer said U.S. trade policy should focus more on securing free trade deals, which would help exporters become less reliant on China.

The Senate last week passed its version of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act with several trade-related amendments, including one that could establish a notification regime for, but not restrict, certain outbound investments (see 2307260029).

The Senate this week voted to attach amendments to its version of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, including one that could establish a notification regime for certain outbound investments and another that could ban China, Russia, North Korea and Iran from investing in American farmland and agricultural businesses.

A bipartisan bill recently introduced in the House would give the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. the power to block all U.S. land purchases by entities from certain “foreign adversary” countries and require mandatory CFIUS filings for those entities buying land near all American military bases. The Protecting U.S. Farmland and Sensitive Sites From Foreign Adversaries Act, introduced last week, also would establish a “presumption of non-resolvability” for those reviews, which would require the committee to assume at the outset that any national security concerns can’t be resolved.

House lawmakers submitted a host of proposed export control- and sanctions-related amendments as part of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, including measures that could ease defense technology sharing restrictions, harmonize the Entity List with certain U.S. sanctions and investment restrictions and place new export control requirements on items destined to China and Iran. Other amendments could lead to new sanctions on Chinese technology companies and government officials, add the USDA to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., establish a new sanctions coordination office in the State Department and more.