(Texas Scorecard) – At a hearing in the Texas House, the Texas Farm Bureau defended the practice of farm land being sold to individuals and entities closely affiliated with the Communist Party of China. A measure to stop those sales passed the Texas Senate in 2023, but were blocked by the leadership in the Texas House.
Comments from the committee’s chairman, State Rep. Cole Hefner (R–Mount Pleasant), indicate House Speaker Dade Phelan and his team have not changed their position.
During the regular legislative session last year, the Senate passed Senate Bill 147, which would have banned the ownership of Texas agricultural land, mineral interests, and timber by citizens, companies, or governmental entities of countries designated by the federal government as threats to U.S. national security. This would apply to China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Chinese firms and investors have bought 383,935 acres of U.S. land. For example, in 2021, 130,000 acres in South Texas near Laughlin Air Force Base were purchased by a former member of the Chinese communist army.
The Senate’s proposal was killed in the House. Indeed, it was never given a hearing by State Rep. Todd Hunter (R–Corpus Christi), who chairs the House State Affairs Committee.
Hunter is among the members appointed to Phelan’s special committee.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Texas Farm Bureau representative Mickey Edwards expressed concern that a ban on foreign land ownership would impede the property rights of the sellers. Instead, he said the organization preferred the approach offered by State Sen. Charles Perry (R–Lubbock) last session, which would have required that the seller be aware that a hostile foreign entity was trying to purchase their land but would not have banned the practice.
After Edwards’ remarks to the committee, Hefner appeared to agree with the Farm Bureau’s opposition while disparaging the stronger legislation that passed the Senate banning the practice entirely.
“I know we had a bill last session that did not have this vetting process, and I think the Speaker of the House is taking the right approach to get as many different areas of interest so that we do address these serious threats, but we do them in the right way to protect our private property rights and our business and economy,” said Hefner.
For context, the Speaker’s approach was to kill the Senate’s ban last session. This special committee was only formed in the throes of a heated primary runoff election, where the issue had been raised.
Meanwhile, over 95 percent of Republican voters said they would support a ban (not a weak disclosure requirement) on hostile foreign ownership of Texas land during the primary election in March. As such, protecting Texas land has been named a legislative priority of the Republican Party of Texas.