Ep. 13 - Who Owns America's Farmland - and How Much China Has Near Military Bases | Everyone Knows

A slush fund Congress used for decades to silence women — paid with your tax dollars. Six names just came out. Three Republicans. Three Democrats. And forty-five million acres of American farmland sit in foreign hands, with one in four Chinese-owned acres parked next to a US military base.

Hidden in Plain Sight: The Slush Fund Congress Buried and Who Really Owns American Farmland | Everyone Knows Ep. 13

Everyone Knows | Episode 13 | Starborne Studios

Two stories. Both of them matter. The taxpayer-funded slush fund Congress has been using since the nineties to settle harassment claims against its own members — and the destroyed records, the buried names, and the bipartisan vote to keep it covered. Then forty-five million acres of American farmland in foreign hands, including the Chinese-owned land sitting twelve miles from a US Air Force base. Brian Bullock breaks it down — no spin, no hedging.

Two parts. Both of them matter.

FIRST — The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights paid roughly eighteen million dollars in taxpayer money across three hundred and forty-nine settlements between 1996 and 2018. Sexual harassment. Discrimination. Hostile work environment. The fund pays. The victim signs the NDA. The taxpayer covers the bill. In 2013, twenty-three case files were destroyed under a new record retention policy that conveniently shredded the oldest evidence right before the Me Too movement broke. Six names just came out under Representative Nancy Mace's subpoena — three Republicans, three Democrats — covering nine settlements totaling three hundred and thirty-eight thousand dollars. Earlier this year, three hundred and fifty-seven members of Congress voted to keep the older records buried. Sixty-five voted to expose them. Brian walks through the names, the amounts, the shredded files, and the SWALWELL Act on the table now to shut the whole thing down.

SECOND — Forty-five point eight five million acres of American agricultural land are owned or leased by foreign entities. Bigger than the entire state of Wisconsin. Chinese ownership grew seventeen hundred percent between 2010 and 2022, and twenty-five percent of it sits next to American military bases. Smithfield Foods — the largest pork producer in the country, controlling one in four pork chops on American plates — has been Chinese-owned since 2013. A Chinese agribusiness called Fufeng tried to build a plant twelve miles from Grand Forks Air Force Base before an Air Force major, two senators, and a city council shut it down. Most of the bills moving in Congress only ban future purchases. Senator Josh Hawley's bill is the only one that forces existing owners to divest. Brian walks through what is on the table, what the states are already doing, and why "no more new sales" is not enough.

Everyone Knows is the show for people who are tired of being managed.

ABOUT EVERYONE KNOWSIndependent podcast hosted by Brian Bullock — author, storyteller, founder of Starborne Studios. Every episode breaks down what matters using one framework — who benefits, who gets hurt, why now, what happens next. No party line. Just a straight read.

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