03/21/2025
🙏🏼 Glorious new for Texas farm & ranch! 🙏🏼
💥 💥 Late last night, the Texas Senate passed SB 17 — a bill I filed to prevent our foreign adversaries from owning Texas land and natural resources.
SB 17, titled “The Adversarial Land Ownership Act” was voted out of the Senate with bipartisan support on a 24-7 vote with only Democrat dissent. The sweeping legislation addresses growing concerns by many about the foreign ownership of Texas property and its implications for national security.
The bill prohibits foreign governmental entities, companies, and individuals from purchasing private property in Texas if they are from countries identified in the latest Annual Threat Assessment reports by the Director of National Intelligence. Currently, those countries are Russia, North Korea, Iran, and China. Using the Annual Threat Assessment allows for flexibility as foreign relations possibly change.
Last session, I passed a similar bill, SB 147, but it unfortunately did not pass the House. Working with fellow House members, I feel confident that this bill will make it to the Governor’s desk.
This is a national security issue. The largest amount of land owned by China in the US is right here in Texas. According to the Congressional Research Service, between 2023 and 2024 we’ve seen 22 states enact laws to regulate foreign-owned land. We can’t be left behind in Texas- and we must take action.
Working with the Attorney General’s office, my office has crafted the most comprehensive legal framework possible. If passed, SB 17 prohibits the purchase of Texas real property by companies, corporations and individuals domiciled in hostile foreign nations —and specifically includes agricultural land, commercial or industrial property, water rights, rare earth materials, timber, ground water and oil and gas, making it the most comprehensive banning of hostile foreign nation ownership in the nation. 💥
