PASS Act (Foreign Adversary Ag Land & CFIUS)
Current understanding
The PASS Act would prohibit persons linked to China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea from purchasing or leasing U.S. agricultural land near sensitive military or national-security sites, and from controlling U.S. agricultural companies. It would also add the Secretary of Agriculture as a member of CFIUS for agriculture-related transactions, formalizing USDA’s role in national-security review of foreign investment in the ag sector. Status: introduced; effects on farmers (potential buyer/lessee pool restrictions in designated zones), consumers, and food prices are not yet quantified.
Evidence log
- 2026-05-07 — Protecting U.S. Farmland and Sensitive Sites From Foreign Adversaries Act: cross-connection with protecting-us-farmland-sensitive-sites-foreign-adversaries-act: Both bills target foreign-adversary acquisition of U.S. agricultural land near sensitive/military sites, with overlapping restriction approaches. (novelty: 2)
- 2025-10-14 — PASS Act of 2025: cross-connection with farm-act-cfius-agriculture: Both bills would place the Secretary of Agriculture on CFIUS and require CFIUS review of foreign investments in U.S. agriculture; PASS Act adds country-specific (CN/RU/IR/KP) prohibitions with presidential waiver authority on top of the FARM Act’s critical-infrastructure framing. (novelty: 3)
- 2025-03-12 — SOIL Act of 2025: cross-connection with soil-act-2025: SOIL Act and PASS Act both target foreign-adversary agricultural land investment, with SOIL Act adding lease disclosure and subsidy bans on top of PASS Act’s adversary-specific purchase/lease prohibitions. (novelty: 3)
- 2025-03-06 — PASS Act: cross-connection with farm-act-cfius-agriculture: Both bills add the Agriculture Secretary to CFIUS for ag-related transactions; PASS Act pairs that with adversary-country prohibitions on ag land near sensitive sites, while FARM Act frames ag systems as critical infrastructure. (novelty: 3)