LAND Act Proposes Restricting Foreign Farmland Purchases Based on Buyer’s Home Country Rules

The new Land And National Defense Act (LAND Act) is looking to put the brakes on foreign purchases of U.S. agricultural land, but it’s doing it in a surprisingly complex way. Essentially, if you’re a foreign person or entity buying American farmland, you’ll be held to the same restrictions and limits that a U.S. citizen would face trying to buy farmland in your home country. This is a reciprocal rule, meaning the limits on a foreign buyer are now tied directly to their country’s existing laws. This rule applies on top of any existing state laws here in the U.S. (Sec. 2). The bill also creates a mandatory reporting system and a powerful new government Task Force to enforce the whole thing.

The Reciprocity Rule: A Taste of Their Own Medicine

This is the core of the bill: equal treatment, but not the kind you might think. Say you’re a national from Country X, and Country X only allows foreigners to buy 10 acres of farmland. Under the LAND Act, even if you have the cash, you’d be limited to buying only 10 acres of U.S. agricultural land. The idea is to ensure that access to U.S. land is mirrored by access to foreign land for U.S. citizens. For foreign buyers, this means a significant new layer of regulatory hurdle, potentially making it much harder to invest in U.S. agriculture, especially if their home country has strict land ownership laws (Sec. 2).

The Dual Citizen Conundrum and the Task Force

Things get complicated fast for people with multiple passports. If you’re a U.S. citizen who also holds citizenship in another country (a dual citizen), that other country’s rules are treated as your “home country” rules for land buying. If you’re a U.S. citizen with multiple foreign citizenships, or if the buyer is a company with owners from different nations, a new Task Force gets to decide which country applies. They are instructed to pick the country with the toughest land-buying laws (Sec. 2). This gives the Task Force significant discretionary power and means that even U.S. citizens with dual nationality could face restrictions on their ability to buy farmland here.

Speaking of the Task Force, the LAND Act creates a powerful new interagency group, chaired by the Secretary of Agriculture and including heavy hitters like the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and the National Security Division of the Department of Justice. Their job is to police these new rules and report back to Congress every six months. These reports must detail everything from the percentage of land sold to foreign buyers, the average price, and—crucially—whether any of that purchased land sits within 100 miles of a military installation (Sec. 2).

New Paperwork for the Seller

If you own agricultural land and sell it to a foreign purchaser, you now have a mandatory reporting requirement. The seller must report the sale to the Secretary of Agriculture. This isn't just a bureaucratic step; once the Secretary is notified, they are required to immediately inform the U.S. Senators and the specific Congressional Representative for the district where the land is located (Sec. 2). This means that every sale of farmland to a foreign buyer will now have immediate political visibility at the federal level, adding a new layer of scrutiny for sellers and buyers alike.