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 opening remarks well hear from witnesses and the hearing then will be open to questions. Traditionally we dont do questions with panels of our colleagues. I know the governor was interested in taking a few questions. Timewise, im not sure well be able to do a full fiveminute round with the governor. And the second panel will be five minutes questions as normal. So good morning and thanks to all for being here for a timely and necessary conversation about threats china poses to american agriculture. The peoples republic of china, governed by the Chinese Communist party, which is where the strike comes from, it doesnt come from individuals. This is imposed basically where were looking at, lynx to the Chinese Communist party, has gone out of its way to reduce reliance on american agriculture all while aggressively pursuing tactics that threaten our nations ability to feed itself. These threats are multifaceted and a strategic and incendiary and require coordinated and proactive response. Thats last few years have seen them gather up farmland at an active rate. Chinas long use of legal and regulatory system to steal intellectual property and weve seen it from semi conductors to seeds and not to mention the scale and sophistication by which china can manipulate Critical Infrastructure has exposed cut fastballs in american technologies. This interference has ranged from data breaches to theft of Agriculture Research to ramping up disruptions of irrigation and transportation systems. In 2022, chairman comer and i with more than 125 of our republican colleagues asked the Government Accountability office to evaluate Foreign Investments to u. S. Farmland and its impact on National Security, trade and Food Security. As many of you know, in 2021, the department of agriculture estimated Foreign Investments in u. S. Agriculture land grew to nearly 40 million acres. A few months ago we received a final report which showed congress where gaps exist in our reporting framework and how better more timely coordination between federal agencies could help increase visibility into potential National Security risks related to foreign investment. Congress took a natural first step with the recent passage of the consolidated appropriations act where the bill addressed Foreign Ownership of land by improving the tracking system of it. The fact china imports as much food as the u. S. Exports to the whole world makes this conversation more difficult. In recent years, the u. S. Has seen record export values to china for soybeans, corn, beef, chicken meat, and sorghum which are contributors which explore market diversity elsewhere. How do we strike a balance protecting our producers and consumers and every piece of agriculture value chain while keeping pace with chinas needs . How do we reduce our reliance on one country without . Mining the necessity of a strong export market . How do we think smartly about policies that mitt great threats while protecting our best assets . Todays witnesses come to the table with experience with china. I look forward to a discussion. With that i now would like to welcome the distinguished Ranking Member, mr. Scott, for opening remarks hed like to make. Mr. Scott thank you, chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, the purpose of todays hearing is to discuss the influence that china has on american agriculture p. But unfortunately, some of the rhetoric surrounding this topic may derail us from tackling the real issues at hand and may contribute, 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 including race, motivated threats, and acts of violence. This is about agriculture policy, not people policy. I himself want us to keep in mind that china is an important trading partner to the United States, and we need a thorough and policy heavy conversation so that we can help the American Farmers and our agriculture assistants navigate this challenging and somewhat thorny issue. And i hope everyone here today will engage in a serious, factminded, factbased conversation and avoid fear mongering and alarmism. Though im told that this isnt the topic of this hearing, i am also pleased that the recently enacted agriculture appropriations bill will help usda update its outdated system of tracking foreign agriculture landownership in the United States of america. If year going to have a serious discussion, we must know china is our largest trade partner, accounting for 37. Billion in u. S. Agriculture 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 we are in an agricultural trade deficit right now. And im here to tell you that alienating our trade partners will only deepen that deficit. American farmers need large markets to export their products p. And when those markets are lost, who does it harm . Our farmers. And then the American People. We saw the implications of this when the Trump Administration started a trade war with china creating chaos and undermining markets for our American Farmers and such a trade war shut American Farmers out of china. Guess what . Brazilian farmers have filled that gap, increasing their 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 agriculture production. It 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. Being so dependent on a single export market who is also a strategic congressional pet tore 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 agriculture. However, there are many places where i am very critical of the Chinese Government and other Agriculture Technology is highly concerning to me. And continues to be a problem. Marked desertion through domestic price support programs and ignoring w. T. O. Decisions hinders access and creates an uneven Playing Field for u. S. Farmers. And i also remain highly critical of any Foreign Government seeking to buy American Land near essential intelligence or our military installations p. This is now a major National Security. We must protect our National Security interests. This is a National Security issue of soaring magnitude to this nation. Weve 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. I thank the gentleman. The chair would request other members to submit their Opening Statements for the record. The witnesses may begin testimony so ensure 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. 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 forenest a 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. Mr. Thompson i thank the governor and welcome ms. Noem. Mr. Mike gallagher, the chairman of the select committee on the Chinese Government 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. Governor noem 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 chair men 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. Langing member scott and members 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 p. 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, patrolling 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