Common sense dictates that any American with half a brain should support the precise tracking of foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land — particularly farmland purchased by entities or individuals in Communist China, whose stated objective is world domination.
Perhaps the operative words above are "half a brain."
The Biden administration is not only failing to properly track such ownership; it doesn't appear to even have a plan to begin tracking that data — according to an investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Moreover, according to a GAO report, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) has not consistently shared timely data on foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land as required under the 1978 Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA).
The GAO report, which was published late Thursday, states:
Sharing current data could help increase visibility into potential national security risks related to foreign investments in U.S. agricultural land. USDA implements AFIDA across field offices and headquarters, but its processes to collect, track, and report key information are flawed.
According to the GAO investigation, the USDA collects AFIDA data on paper forms filed with county or federal offices, but the process is "unclear and challenging to implement." Even worse, the USDA has no plans or timelines to create an online AFIDA database — despite Congress mandating the agency create one by 2025.
What the...? Then again, should we be surprised? Concerning Biden's apparent lack of concern about our national security, that is.
Here's another example:
With the southern border virtually flung wide open since day one of the Biden presidency, as my colleague Jeff Charles reported in December 2023, there were 151 hits on the Terrorist Screening Database in fiscal year 2023 alone.
And, in the first two weeks of this fiscal year, Customs and Border Protection agents apprehended more than 30 Iranians, nearly 60 Syrians, 35 Pakistanis, 285 Afghans, more than 100 Russians, and nearly 2,000 Chinese would-be illegal aliens at the southern border. Um, Joe?
Clearly, Biden is more concerned with MAGA Republican "extremists" than with agents of foreign adversaries slipping into the country — or ChiCom entities scooping up our agricultural land.
Here's more on the troubling GAO report (emphasis, mine):
The government watchdog agency's review of the AFIDA data — the most recent of which is from 2021 — found the USDA has published errors such as reporting the largest land holding associated with China twice.
"This report confirms one of our worst fears: that not only is the USDA unable to answer the question of who owns what land and where, but that there is no plan by the department to internally reverse this dangerous flaw that affects our supply chain and economy," Congressional Western Caucus Chairman Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., said. "Food security is national security, and we cannot allow foreign adversaries to influence our food supply while we stick our heads in the sand."
"I will, in my capacity as a member of the Select Committee on the CCP, Chairman of the Western Caucus, and as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, be working to introduce measures aimed at fixing USDA’s internal reporting and data management to identify to Congress, and the American people, exactly who is investing in the over 40 million acres of U.S. farmland reported to have ties to foreign actors," he continued.
USDA's most recent data suggests that as of 2021, foreign investment in U.S. farmland grew to approximately 40 million acres. And ominously, Chinese agricultural purchases in the U.S. increased tenfold between 2009 and 2016 alone. Yet, where's Joe Biden and the Democrat Party?
Comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
Go figure.