This bill aims to strengthen oversight of foreign investment in the United States agricultural industry, addressing concerns about national security, economic prosperity, and intellectual property theft from "foreign entities of concern." It seeks to modernize and enforce existing laws to monitor and prevent malign actions by these entities on U.S. farms and land.

The legislation amends the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA) by significantly increasing civil penalties for non-compliance in reporting foreign agricultural land ownership. It mandates the public disclosure of non-compliant persons and requires the Secretary of Agriculture to conduct nationwide outreach to increase awareness of reporting requirements.

A new Chief of Operations of Investigative Actions will be established within the Department of Agriculture to monitor AFIDA compliance, conduct investigations into agricultural espionage, and refer national security concerns to CFIUS. This office will also oversee a new digitized database, developed jointly by the Secretaries of Agriculture and Homeland Security, to consolidate publicly available data on foreign-owned agricultural land.

The bill expands the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review certain real estate transactions by foreign entities of concern, specifically those involving agricultural land, energy resources, or critical materials exceeding specified value or acreage thresholds. The Secretary of Agriculture and the Commissioner of Food and Drugs will be added to CFIUS, and the committee must consider national security effects on food security, biosecurity, and environmental protection.

Additionally, the legislation prohibits foreign persons from participating in Farm Service Agency programs, imposing civil penalties for non-compliance. It requires the Secretary of Agriculture to monitor this prohibition and mandates various reports to Congress, including annual assessments of national security risks from foreign agricultural land purchases and a list of real estate owned by foreign entities of concern.