The House Appropriations Committee adopted a proposal June 23 by Washington Republican Dan Newhouse to ban Chinese, Russian, Iranian and North Korean companies from buying U.S. agricultural land.

By a unanimous voice vote, the committee added Newhouse’s amendment to a bill funding the USDA and Food and Drug Administration.

The amendment directs the agriculture secretary to block the land purchases, but doesn’t specify how. The House made the same gesture last year, but the Senate did not take it up.

Newhouse, who represents Central Washington, said his proposal was preemptive. The U.S. must have energy and food independence, he said.

“This is about our country’s national security and ensuring that adversaries like China, like Russia, like North Korea or Iran do not gain a foothold on American soil,” Newhouse said.

Newhouse introduced a bill in May to ban Chinese investors from acquiring U.S. farmland. The bill has been referred to the Agriculture and Foreign Affairs committees.

Chinese companies or individuals had an interest in 352,140 acres of agricultural land, or slightly less than 1% of the cropland, pastureland and timberland owned or leased by foreign investors in 2020, according to the USDA.

The department’s Farm Service Agency attributed most of the Chinese holdings to Hong Kong-based WH Group buying U.S. pork producer Smithfield Foods in 2013.

The USDA reported 4,324 acres owned by Iranian investors and 834 acres by Russians. No land was reportedly owned by North Korean investors.

A 1978 law requires foreign investors to report acquiring or leasing agricultural land.

Foreign persons held an interest in 37.6 million acres in 2020, or 2.9% of all U.S. agricultural land, according to the USDA. Forestland made up 46% of the land holdings.

The USDA reported that foreign investment in U.S. agricultural land rose modestly between 2009 and 2015, but has been increasing by nearly 2.2 million acres annually since then.

Foreign investment in cropland increased by 6.8 million acres and in pastureland by 1.7 million acres between 2010-2020.

Most of the pastureland was leased by wind-power companies, according to the USDA.

Washington ranks third in the U.S. behind Maine and Hawaii in foreign investment in agricultural land. Foreign investors had an interest in more than 1.5 million acres, or 7.1% of Washington’s agricultural land.

Across the U.S., Canadians had an interest in about one-third of agricultural land with foreign investors.

Investors from Netherlands, Italy, United Kingdom and Germany had an interest in another one-third.