This week, the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) released a new report revealing that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) cannot report reliable information to Congress, or the public, about where and how much U.S. agricultural land is held by foreign persons.

This report is absolutely unacceptable and confirms one of our worst fears: that not only is the USDA unable to answer the question of who owns what land and where, but that there is no plan by the department to internally reverse this dangerous flaw that affects our supply chain and economy.

Food security is national security, and we cannot allow foreign adversaries to influence our food supply while we stick our heads in the sand.

I will, in my capacity as a member of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Chairman of the Western Caucus, and as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, be working to introduce measures aimed at fixing USDA’s internal reporting and data management to identify to Congress, and the American people, exactly who is investing in the over 40 million acres of U.S. farm land reported to have ties to foreign actors.

Rep. Dan Newhouse with his son, harvesting asparagus.

This week, I joined 150 of my colleagues as an original cosponsor to re-introduce the Death Tax Repeal Act to protect the operations of family farms and ranches from the unfair and burdensome federal estate tax, also known as the death tax.

For far too long, when a loved one dies, farmers, ranchers, and small business owners not only have to deal with their grief—they must grapple with a surprise notice from the IRS stating they owe hefty taxes.

As a farmer, I have seen firsthand the financial devastation this ‘death tax’ has on farmers and ranchers in Central Washington. Family farms should not be forced to close or sell out in order to pay an unfair tax.

Part of the American Dream is about sustainability; working hard so as to pass the fruits of your labor on to your family. Repealing this tax once and for all is the best way for our small business owners to protect that sustainability.

Over 99 percent of the 2 million farms and ranches and over 95 percent of small businesses in our country are owned by individuals and families. Current death tax relief is set to expire at the end of 2025 and the Death Tax Repeal Act will:

• Enable multigenerational businesses to continue to support their families without having to pay a devastating tax on the death of a family member.
• Help small business owners to expand their operations.
• Allow further investment into farmworkers and employees.
• Help upgrade infrastructure and technology.
• Allow families to continue to build on their entrepreneurial legacy.

This week, I joined C-SPAN's Washington Journal to discuss immigration, the Southern and Northern borders, and my legislation, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.

America is a land of immigrants, but our current immigration system is broken. In the last three years there have been over seven and a half million illegal migrant encounters nationwide—six million at the southern border alone—in addition to the nearly two million known “getaways.”

I am fighting to fix this broken system and restore security at our southern border. As a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, I proudly supported H.R. 2, the Securing the Border Act of 2023, that included critical asylum and detention reforms. I also advocated to keep Title 42 in place and am fighting to restart construction of the southern border wall, because a country without borders isn’t a country at all.

I also remain steadfast in my commitment to ensure a stable, reliable, and legal agriculture workforce. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act protects our communities, strengthens our national security, and secures our Southern border, while recognizing that our legal immigrants contribute heavily to our local economies, producers, and small businesses.

We must work together on a solution that encourages respect for the rule of law and ensures those who are contributing to our region and have no criminal record are legally able to work.

With International Holocaust Remembrance Day approaching, I was honored to speak to a group of Jewish leaders from around the world on how important it is to remember that dark time. 

It was almost 80 years ago that the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated, and we remain committed to honoring—at every chance we get—the over 6 million innocent Jewish men, women, and children slain in the genocide. 

The Holocaust exists as a stark reminder of the consequences of hatred and prejudice. I see it as a moral duty to ensure that the lessons learned from that hatred and prejudice reflect the resiliency of the survivors and those that helped end the tyranny responsible.

Evil as seen during that era, and as seen around the world even today, will never cease to exist. But that does not mean the fight to end it is any less just.

Part of that fight is sustaining a history education that teaches our younger generations to condemn and denounce the ideals that led to the rise of the evil regime. We honor those lost, and those that helped liberate millions more from a terrible fate.