Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer Urges Biden Administration to Review Massive Oregon Timberland Purchase by Individual with Ties to the Chinese Communist Party

January 18, 2024 – Congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer: Chavez-DeRemer Urges Biden Administration to Review Massive Oregon Timberland Purchase by Individual with Ties to the Chinese Communist Party

After new reporting uncovered that a member previously associated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) owns 198,000 acres of timberland in Oregon, Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (OR-05) is urging the U.S. Department of the Treasury to review the $85 million transaction that was completed nearly a decade ago. This purchase accounts for nearly half of all Chinese-owned farmland in the United States, according to data published in a 2021 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In a new letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who serves as chairwoman of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), Chavez-DeRemer raises concerns that this Oregon timberland transaction was approved despite the potential threat to U.S. national security interests.

“Our adversaries are taking advantage of current loopholes in CFIUS’ jurisdiction to increase their ownership of U.S. agricultural land, strengthen their agricultural production, and weaken America’s agricultural supply chains,” Chavez-DeRemer wrote. “Foreign ownership of U.S. land has rightfully sparked unease among farmers, ranchers and foresters across the country, especially considering other current issues such as the high prices of land and lack of access to a domestic agricultural labor pool.”

Chavez-DeRemer outlines recent examples of similar transactions, including CCP farmland purchases in North Dakota and Kansas that were near military bases and installations. She asks CFIUS to commit to opening a new review process, warning that the Oregon transaction seems to be “another instance of an overlooked foreign adversarial purchase of American agricultural land.”

“This is a systemic issue that transcends Republican and Democratic Administrations,“ Chavez-DeRemer continued. “It is far past time for those who do not consider foreign adversarial land purchasing a threat to U.S. national security to take this issue seriously. We must continue the conversation toward reforms to CFIUS, the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act, which has not been comprehensively reformed since 1978, and other federal safeguards and provisions that will help advance the agricultural sector as a whole into our national security perspective and apparatus.”

Full text of the letter is available HERE.

Chavez-DeRemer is an original cosponsor of the bipartisan Protecting America’s Agricultural Land from Foreign Harm Act, which would prohibit the purchase or lease of U.S. agricultural land by individuals associated with the governments of China and other foreign adversaries. She is also an original cosponsor of the Stop CCP Land Act, which incentivizes states to prohibit countries such as China and Russia from purchasing American agricultural land. Additionally, Chavez-DeRemer is a cosponsor of the bipartisan Promoting Agriculture Safeguards and Security Act.