H.R. 1713: Agricultural Risk Review Act of 2025

CFIUS, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, is the interagency body that screens foreign business deals for national security risks. It already reviews takeovers of tech firms, critical infrastructure, and sensitive real estate. H.R. 1713 brings agriculture squarely into that process.

The bill does two things. First, it makes the Secretary of Agriculture a member of CFIUS whenever a deal involves farmland, agriculture biotechnology, or the broader food industry, which the bill defines to include agricultural transportation, storage, and processing.

Second, it creates a new trigger. When the USDA flags what the bill calls a 'reportable agricultural land transaction,' CFIUS has to decide whether it counts as a covered deal and whether to launch a national security review.

That trigger is narrow by design. It applies only when the buyer is connected to one of four countries the federal government lists as foreign adversaries, China, North Korea, Russia, or Iran, when the USDA has reason to believe (based on intelligence) the deal poses a risk, and when the buyer already has to report the purchase to the USDA under existing farmland disclosure law.

There is also a built-in off switch. If any of those four countries is later removed from the federal foreign-adversaries list, the country-specific requirement stops applying to its buyers.