Raphael Warnock Voted to Allow China to Exploit Government Programs to Buy American Farmland

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) voted in early August against an amendment that would have ensured the Chinese Communist Party cannot exploit United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) farm programs to purchase American farmland.

During the “vote-a-rama” portion of the voting process for the $700 billion Inflation Reduction Act, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) proposed an amendment that would ban the Chinese government from buying American farmland.

Specifically, the amendment would ensure that the Chinese government cannot reap the benefits of USDA farm programs under Section 21001, which includes the environmental quality incentives program, the conservation stewardship program, the agricultural conservation easement program, and the regional conservation partnership program.

Warnock voted alongside his Democrat colleagues to block the amendment. The amendment did not pass. Blackburn’s proposal would only have required one Democrat to vote with Republicans to ensure that the Chinese government cannot purchase American farmland.

Mallory Blount, a spokesperson for Herschel Walker’s Senate campaign, said in a statement on Tuesday, “Raphael Warnock has done more for Joe Biden than he has for American farmers.”

She added, “Ensuring the United States has a secure food supply is critical for our national security. Allowing the Chinese Communist Party to buy American farmland undermines American agriculture and hurts our farmers’ way of life. Raphael Warnock has continuously failed Georgia’s farmers. They deserve better.”

China’s purchase of American farmland has increasingly become a national security issue, which has also alarmed lawmakers.

In early August, right before Warnock voted against Blackburn’s amendment, a Chinese food manufacturing company bought 300 acres of land in North Dakota, just 20 minutes away from Grand Forks Air Force Base.

Last year, a Chinese billionaire in good standing with the Chinese Communist Party bought 140,000 acres in Texas, which is near the Laughlin Air Force Base.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) called the issue a “national security threat,” noting that it “surrenders the massive strategic advantage we have here in America that we are the world’s breadbasket while China can’t feed its own people without food imports.”