New PASS Act Mandates Presidential Block on Foreign Purchases of U.S. Farmland Near Military Bases

The Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security Act, or PASS Act, is a major expansion of the government's power to regulate who can own what in the U.S. agriculture sector. This bill is all about national security, specifically targeting foreign investment in American farmland and agricultural businesses, especially if those investments come from countries deemed adversarial. It essentially gives the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)—the group that reviews foreign deals for security risks—a much bigger bite of the apple when it comes to food and farming.

Who Gets a Seat at the Table?

Currently, CFIUS reviews deals based on national security. The PASS Act formally pulls the Secretary of Agriculture into the room for any review involving agricultural land, agricultural biotechnology, or the broader U.S. agriculture industry. This means that when a deal comes up—say, a foreign entity wants to buy a large seed company or a major farm operation—the Ag Secretary gets a formal say in the national security assessment. The bill also creates a fast track for review: if the Secretary of Agriculture flags a transaction where a foreign person buys U.S. agricultural land (as reported under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act), CFIUS has just 30 days to decide if it needs a full investigation.

The Mandatory Block Button

Here is the sharpest part of the bill: it creates a mandatory prohibition. If CFIUS reviews a deal and finds that a “covered foreign person”—meaning an entity acting on behalf of governments like China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea—is trying to buy or lease agricultural real estate near a sensitive military or government facility, the President must block the transaction. This isn't a suggestion; it’s a mandate. The President only has two ways out: either one of the parties voluntarily walks away from the deal, or the President issues a case-by-case waiver, arguing it’s in the U.S. national interest, and then reports that decision to Congress. This provision gives the Executive Branch powerful, mandatory authority over private land transactions.

The Retroactive Risk for Investors

For anyone involved in foreign investment or land deals, the implementation timeline is critical and introduces significant risk. The President has one year to issue the final regulations for this Act. However, once those rules are final, the new prohibitions apply to any covered transaction that was proposed, pending, or even completed on or after the date 30 days before the final rules take effect. This means a deal that closed legally six months from now could potentially be unwound and prohibited a year from now once the regulations are finalized. This creates massive uncertainty for U.S. agricultural businesses that rely on foreign capital and for the investors themselves, who might find their recently acquired assets suddenly subject to a mandatory government block.