(The Center Square) – As foreign espionage threats continue in the U.S. and in Texas, a new bill becomes law Sept. 1 that prohibits foreign ownership of Texas land.
SB 17, filed by state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, passed the Texas legislature with bipartisan support and was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott.
The Adversarial Land Ownership Act initially passed the Senate in March by a vote of 24-7. A watered-down version passed the House in May by a vote of 75-47 with Republicans and Democrats voting against it. Differences in the bill were ironed out in conference committee and each chamber voted to pass the bill with bipartisan support. Abbott signed the bill into law last month.
“For three years, I’ve worked to pass a bill to protect our land, homes, commercial buildings, water, timber, oil and gas and rare earth materials from being bought up by foreign adversarial nations like China, Russia, North Korea and Iran,” Kolkhorst said, adding that the final bill sent to the governor “is the strongest national security bill in the nation. Texas is not for sale to our enemy countries.”
As of Sept. 1, the new law will prohibit foreign governmental entities, companies, and individuals from purchasing private property in Texas if they are from or connected to countries listed in the latest Annual Threat Assessment report published by the Director of National Intelligence. To date, countries on the list are China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.
Prohibitions for real property includes agricultural land, commercial or industrial property, water rights, rare earth materials, groundwater, timber, and oil and natural gas.
The law gives the Office of Attorney General enforcement authority to investigate potential violations and initiate divestment proceedings against prohibited entities.
The prohibition “is a matter of national security,” Kolkhorst said, adding that during the interim session, her office proposed a stronger bill than in the last session, incorporating measures from a Florida bill that became law in 2023.
Once Kolkhorst’s bill becomes law, Texas will join 22 states that already enacted similar legislation. Between January 2023 and July 2024, at least 22 states enacted legislation regulating foreign ownership of real property, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis. Some states enacted multiple laws.
They include Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The bill becoming law this year was the culmination of multiple years of dedication by Kolkhorst, including meeting with constituents, holding hearings, and surviving a wave of attacks during two legislative sessions by opponents claiming she and the bill were racist.
In the last legislative session, a coordinated effort to kill the bill used a social media platform with direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party, The Center Square exclusively reported.
One of the anti-Kolkhorst groups posted an article published by The Center Square about her bill that Abbott posted on social media on a WeChat platform. The platform was used by opponents of her bill who targeted Chinese Americans labeling them as Chinese traitors and spies, according to a Johns Hopkins expert on China who uncovered an alleged CCP-campaign on social media targeting her bill.
In 2023, her bill passed the Senate with bipartisan support but never made it out of the House State Affairs Committee chaired by state Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi.
Last year, Abbott issued multiple executive orders and directives to state agencies to increase security measures related to China, The Center Square reported. This year, the legislature passed bills incorporating those provisions related to cybersecurity, infrastructure and other public safety issues.
In Congress, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Houston, introduced a bill to protect military installations and training areas from America’s adversaries, including China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, as well as protecting energy projects, The Center Square reported.
The bills were filed after the Texas legislature unanimously passed the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act in 2021, banning Texas governmental entities and businesses from entering into contracts with companies owned or controlled by hostile foreign nations to gain access to Texas’ critical infrastructure.
They did so after learning that a Chinese billionaire and former Chinese People’s Liberation Army general bought over 130,000 acres of land just miles from Laughlin Air Force base in Val Verde County, the largest air force pilot training base in the U.S., The Center Square reported.
The bills were also filed as Chinese espionage threats continue nationwide, including CCP-secret police stations reportedly operating in Houston, Chinese spies being arrested in Houston and the greatest number of Chinese nationals illegally entering the U.S. in recorded history under the Biden administration, more than 176,000, The Center Square exclusively reported.
