House Republicans say Chinese acquisitions of U.S. farmland could be security threat, ask GAO to investigate

Republicans who are likely to take control of the U.S. House in next month's elections have asked the Government Accountability Office, the auditing arm of Congress, to investigate foreign purchases of U.S. farmland, "questioning whether Chinese acquisitions in particular could pose a national-security threat," reports Kristina Peterson of The Wall Street Journal.

“China’s ownership of U.S. farmland is a threat to our food security and national security,” said Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement Monday. Comer and Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.), the top Republicans on the Agriculture and Oversight committees, asked for the GAO investigation in a letter signed by over 100 House Republicans. The letter specifically raised concerns over a Chinese company's purchase of 370 acres near an Air Force base in Grand Forks, N.D. 

Democrats have also expressed concern over foreign investment; they have backed a measure that would prevent acquisition of land by companies from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, Peterson reports.

By the end of 2020, less than 3% of all privately held farmland in the U.S. was held by foreign investors, Agriculture Department data shows. Canadians owned 32% of foreign-held U.S. farmland, the largest share of any country. Chinese investors owned less than 1% of the foreign-owned land but "analysts and lawmakers have expressed concerns that China’s need for more arable land and its search for new ways to feed its population are pushing the country to expand its U.S. holdings, through both legal and illicit means," Peterson reports.

Government watchdog identifies improper USDA spending on crop insurance payouts, food stamps and school meals

The U.S. Department of Agriculture improperly spent $6.7 billion in 2019, according to the Government Accountability Office's annual report to Congress on improper federal spending. That's more than last year, but still a small part of the $175 billion in improper spending the GAO identified across the government, Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico's Morning Agriculture.

The largest share of improper payments, more than $4 billion, went to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. School meals added just over $1.5 billion to the total. Improper payouts and funding for crop insurance programs made up about $1 billion more.

USDA improperly paid about $42.5 million in crop-disaster assistance, GAO said. Though the total amount was low compared to other improper expenditures, crop-disaster assistance had the highest rate of improper payments as a percentage of a program's total outlay, McCrimmon reports.