New Bill Lowers Foreign Farmland Ownership Reporting to 1%, Mandates Sharing Data with National Security Officials

The AFIDA Improvements Act of 2025 is all about tightening the screws on who owns U.S. agricultural land from overseas. This legislation updates the nearly 50-year-old Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) by making two big moves: lowering the reporting threshold for foreign entities and forcing the Department of Agriculture to share all that ownership data directly with national security agencies.

The New 1% Rule: Who Has to Report Now?

If you’re a foreign investor, the rules for reporting land purchases are about to get a lot stricter, especially when multiple people are involved. Under the existing rules, it could be tricky to track ownership if it was spread across several layers of shell companies. This bill (Sec. 2) cuts through that complexity. It establishes a new minimum reporting threshold of 1% for any foreign person who owns an interest in agricultural land, provided that more than one foreign person is involved in the transaction. This 1% stake counts whether it’s held directly or through multiple companies. For the busy people out there, this means Uncle Sam is getting more serious about knowing exactly who has a financial interest in the land that grows our food. If you’re a foreign entity, even a small stake now puts you on the government’s radar.

Sharing the Farm Data with National Security

Perhaps the most significant change for the average person concerned about national security is the new mandate for information sharing (Sec. 3). Within one year of the bill becoming law, the Secretary of Agriculture must set up formal agreements to share all AFIDA reports with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). CFIUS is the federal body that reviews foreign investments for national security risks. Right now, this data sharing isn't automatic or comprehensive. This bill makes it mandatory for CFIUS to get a copy of every single foreign farmland ownership report, noting who sent it and when. This move ensures that the people tasked with protecting the country's critical infrastructure—which definitely includes agricultural land—have the full picture, automatically.

Beefing Up Enforcement and Going Digital

This bill also gives the Farm Production and Conservation Business Center (FPAC-BC) a clearer, tougher mandate for enforcement (Sec. 2). They are now required to take “whatever steps are needed” to confirm the accuracy of the data they collect and must actively work with the Farm Service Agency to find people who have violated the disclosure rules. While this sounds like a strong push for compliance, the broad language—”whatever steps are needed”—could give investigators significant leeway in how they conduct their checks. For foreign owners, this means more scrutiny and a higher likelihood of facing civil penalties if they don't report correctly.

Finally, the bill pushes the government to get out of the paper age. It requires the FPAC-BC to analyze and set a clear timeline for fully implementing an electronic reporting system for AFIDA disclosures if one isn't fully established within one year (Sec. 3). For those who have ever dealt with government paperwork, the promise of a digital, streamlined system is a welcome change, making compliance easier for those following the rules and tracking non-compliance simpler for the government.