U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) and a bipartisan contingent of 13 lawmakers questioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) about the accuracy of its foreign land ownership disclosure process.
Specifically, the senators asked about alleged inaccuracies in information publicly posted by the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) on its website related to disclosures made under Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) reports, according to an Aug. 12 letter they sent to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.
“We are concerned about the accuracy of information contained in these disclosures, which are still completed by hand on physical paper,” wrote Sen. Fischer and her colleagues. “The current practice of manual data entry, including the re-typing of paper-filed reports into FSA systems can lead to the publication of problematic and inaccurate information.”
For example, the senators wrote that there have been instances where energy developers have been incorrectly identified as having ownership interests from sanctioned nations, when in actuality the investment originated from allies of the United States.
“If true, such errors not only create confusion but also undermine the credibility of the data published by the FSA,” wrote the lawmakers, who in addition to Sen. Fischer also included U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Mike Rounds (R-SD), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).
They asked Vilsack to answer several questions, including what measures the USDA is taking to identify and correct inaccuracies in the publicly accessible database of AFIDA reports under current submission requirements, and how frequently the FSA reviews the information posted on its website for accuracy, among others.