A bill in the Texas legislature to ban nations deemed security threats from buying land in the Lone Star State is almost ready for Governor Greg Abbott's signature to become law.
The state House of Representatives passed Brenham-based state Senator Lois Kolkhorst's Senate Bill 17 on Thursday night, and since it's already passed the Senate (where the bill originated) all it takes to become law is for a joint committee of Senate and House members to agree to the final terms of the bill before sending it on to the Governor.
The process gets underway this week and should be finished within a few days. Governor Abbott is expected to sign the bill into law.
The bill would set restrictions on who could buy Texas real estate -- restrictions that are limited to countries that the U.S. national director of intelligence has designated on a national security threats list. Currently, that list includes only China, Iran, North Korea and Russia -- but there is now a new addition to the would-be law..
Added to the bill late in the process before being passed by the House is an amendment that would allow the Governor to decide which nations and which residents of those nations could be restricted from owning land in Texas.
That amendment was added by state Representative Nate Schatzline of Ft. Worth in order to allow the Governor to act quickly against land purchases "rather than waiting for a year for that to be added into the designated national security threats list
The bill springs from news reports last year that China has been buying "strategically placed farmland" next to military installations across the US, including land close to Fort Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood) in Killeen.