Congressman thompson of pennsylvania chairs the house Agriculture Committee. Congressman Glenn Thompson of pennsylvania chairs the house Agriculture Committee. The Committee Comes to order and thank you for joining the meeting, the dangers china imposes to the department of agriculture. After brief we come to order. , good morning and thank you for joining todays hearing entitled the danger china poses to american agriculture. After brief opening remarks members will receive testimony from Witnesses Today and then the hearing will be open to questions. Traditionally we do questions with panels of our colleagues. I know that the governor is interested a full five minute round with the governor and the second panel will be five minutes of questions is normal. Good morning and thank you to all for being here for a timely and necessary conversation about the threats that china poses to agriculture. The peoples republic of china governed by the Chinese Communist party, which is where the threat comes from. It does not come from individuals. This is basically where we are looking at what links to the Chinese Communist party. We want to release reduce all while aggressively pursuing tactics that threaten the ability of the nation to feed itself. These are multifaceted, strategic, incendiary and require a coordinated and proactive response. These last few years we have seen china steel intellectual property from the u. S. , weaponized agricultural trade and acquire American Farmland at an alarming rate. Each of these disrupt National Security, rural communities, and resiliency. The chinese use their systems to steal intellectual property and we have seen this in semi conductors up to seeds. Not to mention the scale and sophistication by which china can manipulate Critical Infrastructure as exposed to vulnerable abilities and technologies. The Center France ranges from data breaches and theft of Agriculture Research to ramping up disruptions of transportation and irrigation systems. In 2022, chairman common ask for the evaluation of investments and the impact on National Security trade and Food Security. Many of you know the department of agriculture estimated Foreign Investments grew to nearly 40 million acres. If you months ago we received a final report that Shows Congress where gaps exist in the reporting framework and how better communication could help increase visibility into National Security risks related to foreign engagement. There was a step with the consolidated appropriations act recently and the bill addressed Foreign Ownership of land by a tracking a tracking system. China imports almost as much food as the United States exports to the whole world. That makes this conversation more difficult. In recent years the United States has seen a record for soybeans, corn, beef, chicken, tree nuts, and sorghum. They are major contributors to the domestic farm economy underscoring the importance of Market Access and diversity. How do we strike a balance . Protecting consumers and every piece of agriculture chain while keeping pace with the needs of china. , how do we reduce reliance on one country without underlying the necessity of a strong export market and how do we think smartly about policies that mitigate threats while protecting our best assets. Witnesses please come to the table with lived experience and decades of knowledge of china. And these very questions. I look forward to this discussion and with that i would now like to welcome the distinguished Ranking Member, mr. Scott, for opening remarks. Thank you chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, the purpose of todays hearing is to to discuss the influence that china has on american agriculture. Unfortunately, some of the rhetoric surrounding this topic may derail us from tackling the real issues at hand and may contribute, and hopefully not, but may contribute to violence. Against Asian Americans. I want all americans to know that we, on the Agriculture Committee, condemn all bigotry and that includes race motivated threats and acts of violence. This is about agriculture policy. Not people policy. I also want us to keep in mind that china is an important trading partner to the United States. We need a thorough and policy heavy conversation so that we can help the American Farmers and to our agricultural system. As we navigate this difficult, challenging, and thorny issue. I hope everyone here today will engage in a serious fact minded and factbased conversation and avoid fear mongering and alarmism but i am told that this is the topic of the hearing but i am also pleased that the recently enacted agriculture appropriations bill will help usda update its outdated system of tracking Foreign AgriculturalLand Ownership in the United States of america. If we are going to have a serious discussion about foreign influence on american agriculture, we must remember that china is our largest trade partner. Accounting for 33. 7 billion in u. S. Agricultural exports. Just last fiscal year alone. American farmers are the most efficient and productive and because of this, we produce far more than we americans can consume. My colleagues will often note that we are in an agricultural trade deficit right now. I am here to tell you that alienating our trade partners will only deepen that deficit. American farmers need large markets to export their products and when those markets are lost, who does it harm . Our farmers. And then, the American People. We saw the implications of this during the Trump Administration when they started a trade war with china creating chaos and undermining markets for our American Farmers. It shut American Farmers out of china and brazilian farmers have filled that gap, increasing exports to china as our market share decreased. Now trump is calling for a 60 tariff on all chinese goods. This would have drastic impacts on american Agricultural Production and would increase costs for consumers and would almost certainly lead to devastating retaliatory tariffs placed on the u. S. Agriculture exports. So, i think its fair to think that the u. S. It being so dependent on a single export market, who is also a strategic competitor raises and poses a risk for our American Farmers. And one way that we can address this concern is to expand trade in existing markets while we open new markets. And, i continue to support increasing the Market Access program. Thats the way to go. And Foreign Market Development program in the farm bill. And i believe that the new trade deal is critical for our american agricultural agriculture. However, there are many places where i am very critical of the chinese government. The theft of seed and other Agricultural Technology is highly concerning to me. And continues to be a problem. Market desertion through domestic price support programs and ignoring wto decisions hinders access and creates an uneven Playing Field for u. S. Farmers. And i also highly remain critical of any Foreign Government seeking to buy American Land near is essential intelligence or our military installations. This is now a major National Security issue. We must protect our National Security interests. This is a National Security issue of soaring magnitude to this nation. We have got to protect our farmland and not get it in the hands of foreign interests. Particularly china. I look forward to hearing from our witness chairman, today, and coming out of this hearing with an improved understanding of our relationship with china and how we can Work Together to protect americas agriculture interests. Thank you. Thank you gentlemen. The chair would request members submit their Opening Statement should ford the record. The witnesses may begin testimony to make sure theres ample time for questions. Please welcome mr. Dusty johnson to introduce our first witness. Governing the nation should be a team sport but unfortunately there are a lot of free agents in politics and people dont understand the value of shared vision and efforts. Luckily our speaker this morning my friend, my governor, knows how to Work Together. She understands that we get a lot more done when the federal government and the State Government are trying to find a path together forward. I dont think theres a month that goes by she doesnt show the leadership necessary to have her teamwork with our team whether it is protecting farmland from the Chinese Communist party and getting tiktok off government devices and making sure her state Pension Program has the flexibility to divest from c. C. P. Influences and making sure the farm bill priorities are right, managing the Black Hills National Forest in an appropriate way. Protecting Mount Rushmore. I could go on for an hour, sir. And i know you dont want me to, of the ways our speaker and i have been able to Work Together. So, i just got to tell you, im honored to be able to have a real south dakotan, a real leader and a real partner come on back to the ag committee and share some wisdom with us. Mr. Chairman, the governor of the great state of south dakota, kristi noem. I thank the governor and welcome ms. Noem. Mr. Mike gallagher, the chairman of the select committee on the Chinese Communist party. Congressman, thanks for joining us. Hopefully our third witness today, and i know he has scheduling conflicts initially here but hoping hell be able to join us in time to offer his perspective, another respected colleague of mine, of ours, someone i work with on many issues including career and technical education, the gentleman from illinois, who is the Ranking Member of the select committee on the Chinese Communist party. Thank you all witnesses for joining us. Well now proceed to your testimony. Youll each have five minutes. The timer is in front of you. Countdown to zero when your time is expired. Governor noem, please begin when ready. Thank you. Its an honor to be with you and thank you, congressman, for that kind introduction. Youre a wonderful friend and doing such a great job maybe because you stole half my staff and kept them when i left the hill. But youre a wonderful representative for south dakota. Thank for you caring so passionately for all our people. Chairman thompson, i have the honor of having one of my former chairmen on this committee sit before me, chairman lucas and was my chairman when i served in the house of representatives and had a chance to do two farm bills but serving under his leadership was a special honor and i love being a member of his team as we put together farm policy as i referred to as food policy for the United States of america. Its wonderful to see you again, chairman lucas, and i look forward to receiving your advice and wisdom over the years. Ranking member scott andmembers of the committee, thank so you much for letting me be here today to discuss this topic. As a former member of this committee, i know it very well. Each day you protect not only our nations food supply but you are stewards of our land and its a treasure to do that each and every day. I come before you today and sit as the 33rd governor of south dakota. My home state is known for its gorgeous black hills and Rolling Plains but the iconic Mount Rushmore and we have a lot to be proud of. And if you havent come to visit us, you probably should. Agriculture is the number one industry but tourism is our second largest industry. Its important to our people our land stays in good shape and continue to produce. This year is special to me because this is the 30th year ive worked on agriculture policy. I spent my lifetime working on policy, not just being a farmer and rancher and raising my family on the land but also being involved in meetings. At just the age of 22 my dad was killed in an accident on our family farm and i got angry when i found out how our family was going to be hit tragically by the death tax and started showing up at meetings to talk about policy and how it impacted small farms. At that time the u. S. Senate majority leader was tom daschle, a democrat and he appointed me to serve on the farm agency state committee which is the industry that oversees all the farm programs in the state of south dakota. I did that many years as a young wife and mother and also as a farmer and rancher running a large operation in our state. I was heavily involved in the implementation of federal programs in our state making sure they worked for all our ranchers there and that they were as flexible as possible to give them the freedom to choose how they ran their farms and to do it very well. I served on many different commissions and task forces in washington, d. C. During those years to help disadvantaged farmers, people that were in tough situations in different Critical Situations and as a general manager of our business operations, i ran our farm for many decades. I first was elected to our state legislature in 2006 and became the assistant majority leader in the house. While there i rewrote our property tax system and ended up running for congress and was elected and served on this committee and we worked on two farm bills while i served on this committee and served on Natural Resources, on the Armed Services committee, education and Work Force Committee and ended on ways and Means Committee when we did tax reform and was very proud to see that signed into law. In 2018 when i ran for governor in our state, i won and then was reelected again last year or in 2022 and i am in my second term now. I tell you all of this because i think its important for you to know that my heart is with the land and it is with our people, but when it comes to policy, that i know what im talking about. And i know it because i live it. Today i focus of this committee is the danger china poses to american agriculture. Over the years, i have witnessed this hostile communist country work to systematically work to take over our Food Supply Chain and decades ago started buying our fertilizer companies, controlling our ability to access fertilizer and bring it in the United States and then i watched them buy up our Chemical Companies as i worked on implementation of policies and programs at the state level and federal level. I watched as we sold citizenship to Chinese Communist members of the communist party for investment into our Processing Systems and now most of our processing facilities are owned by the communist party or chinese government. Now they are coming for our land. And when they buy up our land they will complete their chain of control of our food supply. Between 2010 and 2020 the Chinese Communist parties holding of ag land increased by 5,300 . Reports show china owns 384,000 acres of u. S. Ag land valued at over 2 billion. This should be alarming to all of us. Usda admits this may not even account for all the land they own because theres very little track of foreign interests involved in these large transactions. In fact, theres very little reporting that happens at the state or federal level and little consequences for allowing countries who hate us from owning our land. Just this past summer, we had members of the communist Party Contact our State Government and want to come and visit two of our processing facilities and see our farms and visit south dakota. We declined all of those meetings. But just within days we received a phone call from the state department telling us that those were chinese spies. They were there to steal our intellectual property and steal our genetics and wanted to debrief us if we met with them. Thank god we did not. We were told they were there to help improve our trade relations, that they were there to improve our business and exports and instead they were there to steal from the United States of america. So the threat is very real to us every single day what china is doing and they have a thousands year plan to become the world dominating power in the world and the only thing standing in their way is america. Just this past summer it was clear when those chinese spies were in our state that china wants to control us and they want to do that by controlling our food supply. The Chinese Communist party is not our friend. Theyre not our partner or ally but our enemy and a rapidly expanding Security Threat that cant be ignored. Let me be clear, theyre buying up our entire Food Supply Chain and when america cant feed itself and rely on other members of another country to feed us, it becomes a National Security issue. The country that feeds us will control us. And let me remind you why we do a farm bill every year. Im well aware that you have a priority to get that done and im looking forward to getting a farm bill done because thats a safety net for our farmers out there. In the past the farm bill has always been a bipartisan issue and should continue to be a bipartisan issue. I had the opportunity to work on two of them and its simply a safety net for our farmers. Its important and america decided years ago we needed to have a farm bill to ensure every family in this country had a safe and had an affordable food supply, that they had the ability to go to the Grocery Store and put food on the table for their families. If a farmer had a good year he could pay his bills but if he had a bad year key lose everything. We didnt want to have a drought or a flood or something that happened that caused us to lose all our small family farms and allow us to lose the ability to feed ourselves. Every family in this country recognizes the importance after of a farm bill and i know you do, too and look forward to getting one completed so we continue to feed ourselves in this country. The farm bill should be designed to help farmers and not environmental extremists. I hope youll continue to focus on making sure we are working as a conservationist myself. Im committed to protecting the abundance of our Natural Resources in our state but so called Climate Smart agriculture dictated by the Biden Administration does not help farmers and does not help us put food on the table or conserve our Natural Resources. We want Wildlife Habitat solutions that meet the needs of people and the state to best serve our country and our ability to feed ourselves and protect ourselves. The farm bill manages risk and its a safety net and i hope you can get that done. Recent media reports show the largest chinese holder of american ag land is shipping food and medical supplies to china to be stockpiled by the chinese military. We saw when china purchased land in north dakota they claimed was for a corn Processing Plant and there wasnt going to be enough corn to supply the plant and was miles from a military installation. They were purchasing that land on purpose for National Security reasons and that is why i have made it a priority in my state to make sure that doesnt happen on my watch. In south dakota we worked for two years to make sure we had a bill in place to make sure we know who is buying our land and it wasnt going to be from a country that hated us. China would never allow us to go to their country and buy land in their country. They dont even allow their own people to buy their land. Theres no reason we should allow them to come into our country and buy our land and especially not close to our military installations. South dakota is the home to the Ellsworth Air force base and the b1 bomber that protected this country for the last 50 years and also home to the mq9 reaper drones in operation protecting us as well but would be the first home of the b21s which will be the bombing platform to protect this country for the next 50 years. Its incredibly important we stop china and make sure other evil Foreign Governments dont come in and have the opportunity to buy up land next to these military installations. When we talk about food policy, please talk about it from a National Security standpoint. Its important we grow our own food and produce it here and do it in a way that protects the United States of america. And with that i yield back. Thank you, governor. Now well recognize chairman gallagher. Begin when ready. Thank you to members of the committee and what an Incredible Opportunity to discuss the threat imposed by china and american agriculture in particular. I want to thank the governor for her leadership for sharing the alarm about the threat and carrying the burden dealing with dusty johnson before he leaves. He may not technically weigh that much but thats a heavy burden. And i believe hes from your dakota. I always get it confused. A year ago, a gentleman named shang hitao pled guilty to committing american espionage and sent to two years in prison for stealing intellectual property from a monsanto subsidiary and took copies of the algorithm back to china where he worked for chinas institute of soil science. Here you have an example of someone stealing American Technology and bringing it directly back to the Chinese Communist party which reflects the c. C. P. s approach to agriculture and Food Security in that its not just about economic competition. To quote the general secretary himself, its of large importance itself. They import corn, soybeans, wheat, and rice. The c. C. P. Views Food Security as an existential responsibility. If they invade taiwan it would be subject to sanctions and therefore the c. C. P. Would face challenges in feeting feeding its population. So, to put it bluntly, the Chinese Communist party is engaged in warfare against the United States and the agriculture is a prime target. These are only the acquisitions that we know about. There could be much more because as you all know, the federal oversight system for reporting Foreign Ownership is alarmingly lax and enforcement is very minimal. For example, the governor referenced the fufang group which sought to purchase land near the other air force base in 2021 and did not report to the usda until the u. S. Media started asking questions about it. Thats unacceptable. If you look broadly at the process, the u. S. Government has no way to track farm purchase by other adversaries and they are not capable of searching. And second, upon discovering a problematic transaction, they often finds it has no jurisdiction, despite the fact in the frma bill we tried to give them said jurisdiction. And because the air force base in question was not listed as a sensitive site, sipius claimed they have no authority to review the transaction and thats unacceptable. And sippous cant view greenfield farmland and view it as a factor. Our foreign adversaries are able to purchase thousands of acres and they cant consider the impact on our food supply. This strikes me as something democrats a pop republicans could come together right now in congress and so bypassing Something Like the protecting u. S. Farmland and sensitive sites from foreign adversaries a. Act. I know there are members of this committee on both sides of the aisle, ms. Plot kin and i worked very productively on this issue and something we can get done even in divided government, give sippous the resources it needs to make sure our foremost adversary cant buy land near Critical Infrastructure and u. S. Military bases. It should be a nobrainer and i suggest we do better by letting our agricultural i. P. By passing bills. This would ensure u. S. Taxpayer dollars dont go to c. C. P. Backed firms like beijing Genomics Institute that wants to collect genomes from plants and animals. And we should protect us by cataloging u. S. Plants and animals we need to keep American Families fed. In closing, i would say i spent a lot of my time as chairman of the select committee on china asking why any of this matters and why you have this hearing and why were concerned about the threat posed by the communist party. Its not that theyre just stealing our intellectual property and trying to dominate our food supply, i really do thinking and dont think its alarmism but a recognition of reality and if you read what the leader is saying to his party and its people, i believe the c. C. P. Is preparing for a war with the United States. Theres no doubt they would prefer the fruits of war without the actual costs. That is to be sure. But they are preparing nonetheless. And hes told us repeatedly that he is prepared to use force if necessary to achieve his lifelong ambition which is of course taking taiwan and therefore dominating the region and ultimately displacing the United States as the most powerful country in the world. So if we want to avoid that outcome which would be a terrible outcome, a war with china would be horrific if youve ever participated in a war game. There are many on the committee that serve and understand the cost of war. We have to abide by the old adage, if we want peace we must prepare for war. Thats the challenge, to mobilize our colleagues and our constituents to do difficult costly but important things that put us on a path to deterring war. Thank for having this important hearing and for letting me go a little longer. Thanks so much and thanks for your leadership and testimony. I know you have a hearing to get to. So feel free. I can imagine what roger would say if we were here. We spent so much time together. We will take the time while mr. Mr. Krishnamoorthi is at another hearing but is on the way. Id like to recognize mr. Lucas from oklahoma thank you, mr. Chairman. We both agree that a Strong HealthyRural America and Rural America is the key to our National Security. I serve on a body now where memories are short. And i would like to go back 10 years ago when you and i worked together 2 1 2 year struggle to create the Third Generation farm bill and maybe memories have numbed with time but not the way you conducted in this committee on behalf of your constituents but in those Republican Committee meetings where we, together, battled diligently to get the attention of elected leadership about the importance of these farm bills. I will be forever eternally grateful you backing me up the way you handled the speaker and floor leader on behalf of Rural America and production agriculture. So thank you for that tenacity, which i suspect has grown stronger in time as your role. Understand that what you all say matters and what you do matters, the words you use have consequences and matters in leadership. I have gone at times in my different roles that they recognize that leadership needs to sit and listen to people and have conversations. We have a generation that is addicted to being offended by each other so we love to be offended by something that is said but i would ask that we just listen to each other. The farm bill should be bipartisan. We should be able to put a safety net out there and i am asking you to do that for the consideration of the food policy. If we think a pandemic is scary, think about what happens if we cant feed our people. We are just three meals away from a crisis. I recognize how much control china has not just over manipulating a currency and stealing our ip but, my pension funds, i cant even get vanguard to say that china is not an emerging market anymore. They should give me an ability to invest in something that is not with china to get people the best returns possible. When i look at the food supply and we record highs that china is not our ally, we do trade with them and i worked on i had the ability to notice that when we did trade agreements we created friendlier neighborhoods but we cannot do that if we are not talking with each other and having conversations. That farm bill, even though i pick fights with my own fellow republicans, we got it done but we need to challenge members to come back to the table so we have that safety net and continue to feed our families. Thank you for your tenacity. I yelled back. I know recognize the Ranking Member for questions. How are you . It is good to have you with us. But, tell me this, what is your opinion of trumps proposal for a 60 tariff on all chinese imports . And are your farmers ready face the potential consequences of this . I think that is a proposal that people are looking at and a conversation we have. That is a great conversation for you to continue to have as well with the republican members to weigh in and make sure we get the policy in place. What you do in this committee is people policy and about we are here to talk about ag policy, not people policy. I would say all ag policy is people policy. At what you do on this committee is people policy. It is about the programs that take care of needy folks that need to have that kind of help and it is about making sure that we have many farmers out on our land and we have that safety net. You have an Incredible Opportunity that is not happening anywhere else on capitol hill. I hope you catch that vision. Nobody cared that much about a little state called south dakota. We get one member of the house. When i came here, i didnt get a delegation. I became friends with everybody, republicans and democrats because if i wanted to get stuff done. We were the first state to ban tiktok and after that, they banned it. Governor, i have one more question for you in that my short time. If you listened to my Opening Statement, i hope you understand how concerned i am about Foreign Governments coming in and buying up our land, especially our farmland. Foodmakes the Agriculture Committee the most powerful committee. The most powerful committee in congress. You can do without a lot of things but the one thing we cannot do without is food. And im concerned about the china impact especially and buying up this farmland. And when you correlate that with the number of immigrants coming into in country from china, thats a long way to walk and get to mexico or south america to get in those trips where they are coming across our border. I got to wonder about that and i want to ask you how much land in south dakota have gone to foreign interests . And i want you to know that i agree with you, this is a National Security of high monumental interests. And we got to get to the bottom of it. How is your state reacting to the buying up of land by Foreign Governments, particularly china in your state . That was the question when i became governor and we had a law that prevented evil governments buying our land but there was no reporting mechanism or no consequences and we didnt know who owned our land or investment and nobody was reporting it and if we did find someone was purchasing land such as north korea, iran, russia, china, venezuela, cuba. And there are no consequences. Last year i brought a bill that would allowed to create a board at the state level. Thats what i wanted to have in place and reviewed those transactions and put forward consequences to make sure it was done closer to the people and had more accountability and looking at real estate transactions. That bill did not pass and what we ended up passing we added reporting mechanisms to the law we already had with consequences. I know when we have a bill on the books, we need to know to get the answer. But there are foreign interests that are buying land in south dakota . I believe there are countries that i do know that some of our biggest processing facilities are owned by china. Smithfield foods processes in a sioux falls, south dakota. Have been difficult to work with. Thank you chairman for having this hearing because i truly believe that food is now a National Security issue. We have two additional questions for the governor and then we will get testimony from my good friend from illinois, my son and daughterinlaw is congressman, mr. Krishnamoorthi. I will yield to congressman scotts and congressman slotkin. Thank you. Im going to get technical in this, the reason it is so important for us to be aggressive with china on the ag issue is that this is a basic necessity. We arent talking about toys but the chemicals it takes for our food supply and the technology in our seed supply. And u. S. Companies, less than 10 years ago, where 80 of the seed apply and today, 30 of the global seed supply. When you allow countries like china through Companies Like one of the largest seed suppliers in the world and largest chemical supplier in the world i might add, then you are putting one of your basic daily needs at risk, which is your food supply. And i want to commend you for being aggressive with that. It is way past time to be aggressive with china. They are not an economic competitor anymore. They are an adversary and we have acknowledged that. And if tariffs are what it takes to bring manufacturing back not just to the United States and to the western hemisphere that is part of what its going to take to have self control over our basic necessities. You were here during the last farm bill, one of the big discussions that we have asked for help for and not been able to get it from many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle is an increase in prices. As you talk to your farmers and producers, can you tell me what you are hearing from them about the increased in input costs and reference prices so they have a safety net. If you dont address it and dont bring them up to where they should be, there is no safety net. As far as doing these programs and making sure you are making adjustments in the part of a farm bill, thats one of the most important things you can do to manage risk. What farmers do every year. And those who arent farmers, they go to a bank and go to buy land or a tractor and corn planter and get an operating note and buy seed, and chemicals. And maybe it will rain and something will grow and go back and harvest enough to pay their bills. Some of the biggest gamblers in the world because they bury millions of dollars in the dirt because they believe producing is a need that America Needs to have and give them a safety net. It is not just the fact that they operate on faith and are heavily leveraged. It they can have one year that is a drought and lose their entire operation. But referencing those is important to get them through a situation like that so i have always talked about the food bill because we decided as a country it is important that we always feed ourselves. We dont depend on another community to feed us. There are a lot of farmers out here and safe and affordable one because we have a farm bill and Safety Net Program that they can stay on the land. Thank you for your testimony. I appreciate you. And the type of member that you were when you were here and the governor that you have been. I will finish with this, mister chairman. The last call i got was not from a farmer but from a banker and his response was, i dont think that there is a commodity that we grow in the state of georgia where our farmers can make a profit this year at the current prices with costs where they are. I yield back. The gentleman yields back. I recognize Committee Member slotkin. Thank you. Food security is National Security. Im a former c. I. A. Officer and two of us are on the committee and thats my entire lens. We should be able to feed ourselves by ourselves. During covid, my family is in the hot dog business and we were concerned with the meat Processing Plants that americans dont know what its like to see no protein on the shelves and the panic that would create and the concern that would create and i live on my family farm. Just to pick up on a thread that representative gallagher mentioned, this idea of having farmland purchases go through the cfius process. And again, i see it as a federal issue and based on your example, the Intelligence Community, the full weight of our Insider Information on a company, individuals, on their intentions does reside on the federal government. I respect your attempt to do it at the state level but you were about to meet with businessmen, the state department comes in and says, we have problems with them, that resides at the federal government level. There are a bunch of bipartisan bills on putting all purchases of farmland just not farmland adjacent to a military base but all farmland to go through that cfius process and let our Intelligence Community tell us if this was a risk or not. Myself and representative blake moore from utah went a step further and we said its not just farmland and you have a Company Building a big manufacturing site, a Company Coming in to do a huge purchase of our infrastructure, you should be putting that through that same Intelligence Community process to help us understand if that is a strategic threat to us and we are trying to solve the same problem which is how do we make sure that nations that could be real adversaries are not able to purchase major infrastructure and assets in the United States . We have to make distinction and cant hit it with a giant club. Biggest purchasers of farmland in michigan are canada and haaland. I used to go there when drinking age was 19 and im not concerned. It has been limited but i do think its bipartisan cooperation. We have to do that without deemizing people from china who are living under this government that i bet they dont like. We want the best and brightest from china to be students as opposed to take information back to china. Thats my one ask have a policy conversation and do it on a bipartisan basis. We have the will here but in the process not demonize all human beings with a giant brush where leaders set the tone. But i agree with you on many, many things on this and ask you to take it one step from farmland to the big infrastructure that we know they are interested in. With connections to the Chinese Communist party or party. We we have had a lot of conversations about in south dakota. The next question is what about commercial property. Its not they havent been conducting nepharious activities and where does it stop. We should be annualizing it. I proposed the cfius model at the state level. I get the privilege and opportunity to be focused on south dakota and i know what is going on there better than someone else who lives across the country. No offense to the federal government very rare that you fix anything. And when we are doing something, i am doing it in south dakota and you are taking that as a model and the constitution gives us states rights to lead than what it grants to the federal government. By giving us the opportunity for me to fight for my people it gives other chances and the federal government. I would use tiktok as an example. By us leading, by banning tiktok, dozens of states followed our lead and federal government came in and recognized the threat that tiktok was and collecting data and spying and study the American People and how to steal our information. You know, let the states be incubators of what the constitution intended us to be on models like this and the federal government can move forward and do things right. I am much more nimble than the federal government is. Thank you gentle lady and i thank the governor. Thank you so much for taking the time and expense and spend some time with us and your leadership on this issue. Much appreciated. At this point. You are excused. And im going to recognize my good friend from illinois who is the vice chair or the Ranking Member of the select committee on china, mr. Mr. Raja krishnamoorthi for his five minutes of testimony. Go ahead when you are ready. You, mr. Chairman and to the committee for inviting me to speak today. Ag has always been a cornerstone of the u. S. And china relationship. Chairman gallagher and i worked with members of the and committee on this issue. In august 2023 we traveled to a small town in the state of iowa. In 2000 11, not very far from dysart, a man was seen digging in the cornfields. He was looking for proprietary corn seeds to send back to his corn seed company in china. The man tried to shift 250 pounds of corn seeds disguised in cosco packs of microwavable popcorn. The total case of this ip theft was estimated to be 30 million because the folks in china wanted to reverse engineer the contents of this to be able to produce the same back in china. Ag technology is a prime target of ip theft because American Technology and farming are the best and most productive in the world. The select committees bipartisan economic report released in december last year included broad recommendations on how to best protect i. P. For the ag sector, we need to improve coordination between local and federal Law Enforcement agencies and properly resource and trend the d. O. A. Doj to prosecute these crimes. There are other concerns addressed in our economic report. Congresswoman slotkin and congresswoman henson have transformed another recommendation into the securing american ag act which which would require the usda to study the chain including animal feed and pesticides where china has been increasingly dominating the market and crowding american and other suppliers. As we continue to remain in an area of uncertainty in our trade relationship with china, we need to better protect farmers from retaliation by the ccp, including by diversifying ag export markets for American Farmers. Now i know this committee has been looking at the issue of land sales. There are legitimate concerns with purchases by ccp affiliates , ccp affiliated entities, especiallyclose to sensitive and military sites. As we address these problems, we have to make sure the cure is not worse than the disease. Some solutions had real and harmful effects on the Asian American community as well. Dozens of bills across the Country Target chinese nationals whether they are affiliated with the c. C. P. And Land Acquisition to sensitive sites. Florida, for example, passed s. B. 264 that prohibits chinese nationals from purchasing Real Property in the state. This law had a serious negative impact on the asianamerican. Ming zoo, a political aseal yes who was persecuted by the c. C. P. And fled to the United States and beginning to rebuild his life in florida. Since the passage of sb 254, he was forced to cancel the purchase what was going to be his new home. In his new country. The lesson here is very clear. When land purchase bills target individuals who are chinese immigrants, they often target those outside of the intended outside the intended audience. The asianamerican Legal Defense found a lawsuit on equal protection grounds. Laws like s. B. 264 are not justified. In the earlier 20th century, states passed similar alien land laws prohibiting chinese and japanese immigrants from becoming land owners. Those policies restricted Economic Opportunities and exacerbated discrimination in every single one of those laws were repealed one by one by one. So, please, as you consider these land purchase laws, lets be careful. You folks dont want to pursue policies that discriminate against anybody. In that spirit lets be careful not to adopt or encourage those types of policies. Re this verd committee. Re this verd the select committee looks forward to working with your committee in the future and i thank you again. The select committee very much looks forward to working with your committee in the future and i thank you again. Thank you so much for your testimony. I know that this is a busy day for all of us including you pick you up and bouncing from hearings so we will excuse you from the panel, as well. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for your leadership and for sharing with us this t morning. Much appreciated. Thank you so much. We will take just a brief break to, no more than five minute recess, to allow our first Panel Witnesses to depart. Our second Panel Witnesses to take their seats and then we will reconvene. We will reconvene, basically, as soon as our witnesses get comfortably seated here