China Ag Purchases Bill Pt 1
I’m Bob Larson. An amendment to an appropriations bill intended to ban the Chinese government from buying any more American farmland is getting held up by Democrats with language changes.U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse introduced the amendment and says it began with strong support from both sides of the aisle …
NEWHOUSE … “You’re right, we had bipartisan support on that amendment. In fact, it passed, I think, unanimously in the committee from both the Democrats and Republicans.”
And that, Newhouse says was a bit unusual, but not surprising …
NEWHOUSE … “Because people understand. They see the trends over the last decade or so of the increase in the number of acres that are being purchased in the United States by Communist China and are concerned about that, and rightfully so. So, this amendment was, or is an effort to stop that.”
But then, Newhouse says political correctness crept in …
NEWHOUSE … “Some of the opposition to the amendment is taking the form of, well we’re singling out one country and we shouldn’t do that, and there are other countries that maybe we should be looking as well.”
Come back tomorrow for more on the effort to stop China from purchasing any more than the 200,000 U.S. farm acres they already own and why it’s so important.