WASHINGTON – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) spoke on the Senate floor in support of Pete Hegseth, President Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Defense, who will bring much-needed change to the Department of Defense.
Additionally, Sen. Tuberville addressed legislation he reintroduced on Wednesday, the Foreign Adversary Risk Management (FARM) Act. The FARM Act will help secure America’s agricultural industry and food supply chains from foreign adversaries by creating a permanent seat for the Secretary of Agriculture on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Additionally, Sen. Tuberville encouraged the Senate to move quickly on confirming President Trump’s pick for Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, who will fight for America’s farming communities and defend against foreign influence in the U.S. agricultural sector.
Read Sen. Tuberville’s remarks below or watch on YouTube or Rumble.
ON CONFIRMING PETE HEGSETH
“Thank you, Mr. President,
I want to reiterate what my colleague from Tennessee just talked about, the importance of the vote that we just took. Just a few minutes ago our nominee for new Secretary Defense, Pete Hegseth.
Now the procedure is, as we just voted, to close the vote and now, we wait 30 hours from just a few minutes ago and have the final vote on his nomination, which it looks like that he has the votes of a majority to be appointed, or sent to the White House, to be confirmed as the next Secretary of Defense.
I’m on the Armed Services Committee, and I’ve watched four years of the destruction of the best military in our world, United States of America. It is a shame what has happened, the DEI, the woke agenda that’s being pushed on the troops in our country, to me, is embarrassing.
I’m a military brat. My dad died on active duty in the military. Awarded five bronze stars and a Purple Heart at age 17 driving a tank across Europe after landing the first day at Normandy. We have to change course in our military, and we can talk about inflation and pumping gas and the crime and all the things that we’re having a lot of problems with, but if you don’t have a strong military to protect our borders and protect the citizens in our country from adversaries all over the world, we got problems. And it’s got to start there.
Pete Hegseth is the choice, the right choice. I like his age, I like his demeanor, I like the things he brings to our military. He’s exciting and he will energize this military into the next decade. And I’m excited about that.
So, hopefully in about 30 hours we’ll vote tomorrow night around 9:00 and we’ll vote to confirm Pete Hegseth as our new Secretary of Defense.
ON THE FARM ACT
Now, I’d like to turn to national security threats in our Nation’s agriculture sector and food supply chains.
I’m on the Ag Committee. Over the past few years, the United States has experienced a rapid increase in foreign investment in agricultural sector, particularly from China. We have to open our eyes. Bad things are happening around us. Growing foreign investment in agriculture and other essential industries like health care and energy is a direct threat to our country’s national security.
You know for years now I’ve been sounding the alarm about foreign ownership of American farmland and other elements of our food chain. According to USDA data from December 2023, foreign investors own approximately 45 million acres of U.S. agriculture land. Now let me say that again: 45 million acres of our forest and agriculture land in this country has been sold to foreign entities. Does that not scare us? What [did] we just see during COVID about our drug supply? We looked around, we looked for health care and help after COVID hit our hit our borders and what happened? We found out that it was all being made in China.
So, 45 million acres, this represents over 1.5 million acres in one calendar year. Foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land in increased modestly from 2012 to [20]17 an average increase of 0.6 million acres per year, that’s 2012 to 2017. But since 2017, the number has skyrocketed to an average of 2.6 million acres a year that we’re selling, our farmland, to our adversaries. And it’s just not China. It’s Russia it’s other entities that don’t wish us well at the end of the day. So additionally, between 2010 and [20]21, entities or individuals from China increased their ownership of U.S. agriculture land more than twenty-fold from about 14,000 acres to 400,000 Acres. This is an unbelievable and unsustainable pace for the United States of America.
Now, Alabama is experiencing, my state, this firsthand. We have the fourth largest amount of foreign owned agricultural land in the United States at 2.2 million acres, most of which is forest land. It’s not really agriculture in terms of growing row crops, it’s basically our forest. You know, I represent over 62,000 farmers in the state of Alabama. I hear from them time and time again about foreign activity in our agriculture community. Threats like these are something our states can’t handle all on their own.
Which is why President Ford established, President Ford, established a Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, also known in short terms, CFIUS. This was in 1975. In other words, this committee is supposed to keep an eye on foreign investments in our country. This is the governmental body that oversees the vetting process of foreign investments and acquisitions of American companies in the interest of national security. CFIUS is composed of nine members of President’s cabinet including the Secretaries of State, Treasury, Defense, Homeland Security, Commerce, and Energy. The Attorney General, the US Trade Representative, and the Director of Office of Science and Technology Policy also sit on this vetting board of industry and land in our country.
Nowhere on that list did you hear me say the Secretary of Agriculture. Now why is that? […] Considering the massive increase in foreign investment in our country, we need additional oversight for what’s going on in our country. We got our eyes closed. Which is why yesterday I introduced the Foreign Adversary Risk Management Act, called the FARM Act, here on the floor that will accomplish three major things.
First, it would add the Secretary of Agriculture as a permanent member of CFIUS. In other words, that somebody that’s going to help our agriculture people vet land that’s being bought by foreign entities. Second, it would protect U.S. agriculture industry from foreign control through transactions, mergers, and acquisitions, and agreements, and it would also designate agriculture supply chains as critical infrastructure and critical technology. Third, it would require a report to Congress on current and potential foreign investments in the U.S. agriculture industry. This legislation, folks, is long overdue.
These foreign investments now reach into every aspect of agriculture industry and supply chains from farming and processing, to packaging and shipping. We cannot, and I repeat, we cannot allow our adversaries to have a foot in the door to our critical supply chains. Food security is national security. We must prioritize increased oversight of foreign investment, and our food supply chains especially those coming from China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
This starts with giving the agriculture community a permanent seat at the table of CFIUS. The FARM Act does just that.
ON CONFIRMING BROOKE ROLLINS
And there’s no better person to fill this permanent seat on CFIUS than my good friend, who we had a hearing today, as a new nominee for Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins. I’ve known Brooke for 30 years. I met her while I was coaching at Texas A&M. She was the student body president in 1994. The students saw then what President Trump, what they see in her today, her strong leadership and her conviction of agriculture. It will be no different when she becomes the Secretary of Agriculture for the United States of America.
Brooke was brought up in a small agricultural community of Glen Rose, Texas. She comes from several generations of American farmers. She participated in levels of 4-H and FFA. She raised livestock throughout her life. Now she is [a] mother, she’s involved in the show steer industry with her four children. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural development from A&M and later earned a law degree at the University of Texas.
Later at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, she was engaged with rural and agriculture communities throughout Texas. She led litigation efforts that focused on the defense of Texas landowners and farmers against federal interference and regulations. Next, Brooke went on to serve in several roles in President Trump’s White House. She served as the Director of Domestic Policy Council, Assistant to the President for Strategic Initiatives, and Director of The Office of American Innovation. In these roles, she helped roll back terrible EPA rules like Waters of the U.S., or WOTUS, that targeted farmers and ranchers.
After the White House, she joined the American First Policy Institute, where she focused on protecting U.S. farmland and foreign entities seeking to gain control, especially from the Chinese. At AFPI, she strove to improve American food security, independence, as well as support measures that defend U.S. agriculture trade. Brooke understands these many challenges.
In short, Brooke is a conservative warrior and will be an excellent Ag Secretary. I look forward to working with her to secure our farmland from foreign entities and working with her on passing a Farm Bill that puts American producers first again.
As Alabama’s voiced on the Senate Ag Committee, I will continue fighting to secure our agriculture supply chain so our agriculture community can continue to put food on the table. And that starts with someone like Brooke Rollins as our Secretary of Agriculture. She is a terrific nominee, and I look forward to working with her on the Committee.
I expect to move, her to move easily through the Committee vote, and here on this floor. So, once she’s out of Committee, the Senate must vote on her for confirmation. She’ll do great. She’s perfect for the job and I ask that the Senate take up both efforts quickly to defend our agriculture communities which feeds not only the American people but the entire world.
I yield the floor.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, HELP, and Aging Committees.
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