Closing an open door: House Bill 315 and the protection of our nation
Rep. Marianne Proctor (District 60)
It has been nearly 35 years since the end of the Cold War. While the United States has engaged in other conflicts since then, none have paralleled the scale of the threat posed by the aggression of the communist bloc throughout the latter half of the 20th century.
While the Soviet Union may have fallen, other nations such as China, Venezuela, Iran, and Cuba have persisted in their attempts to do our country harm. Some of their methods are more open than others such as funding terrorist organizations, indefinitely detaining American citizens, and threatening our allies. They have also engaged in tactics which are more hidden from the everyday eye such as cyberattacks on our infrastructure, producing propaganda, and embedding spies across numerous sectors of industry.
However, since the early 2010s the federal government has been sounding the alarm around a new threat posed by these countries which has been growing in our own backyards nearly unchecked for years: farmland. Not just any farmland though, but rather farmland strategically located near some of the most important military installations across the United States which have been slowly acquired by investors, billionaires, and companies with strong ties to our nation’s enemies.
To put this issue into perspective, the vast majority of foreign owned agricultural land in the United States is owned by our allies such as Canada, the Netherlands, and Italy. Less than one percent of foreign owned agricultural land is in the hands of entities linked to our advisories. However, as the following examples show, it is not the size of their holdings but rather their locations:
In 2012, President Obama ordered a Chinese company to divest from their significant amount of property near the Boardman Bombing Range in Oregon, a site where the U. S. Navy conducts exercises with fighter jets, unmanned drones, and electronic warfare systems. Between 2017 and 2021, a Chinese billionaire with strong ties to the Chinese government purchased over 140,000 acres of Texan ranch land near the Laughlin Air Force Base, the Air Force’s largest pilot training facility. In 2023, another Chinese company attempted to purchase 370 acres near the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota where critical combat surveillance and reconnaissance units are stationed.
Most troubling of all, a Chinese company was forced to divest from a property located less than one mile from the Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, home to over 150 intercontinental ballistic missiles and their launch facilities.
With Kentucky being home to two critical military installations–Fort Campbell and Fort Knox–we owe a duty to the men and woman of our armed forces to ensure they have all the protections needed so they may continue upholding the safety and security of our nation.
This is why we passed HB 315 during this past legislative session. HB 315 prohibits any foreign investor, company, or other entity from purchasing, leasing, or otherwise acquiring agricultural land in Kentucky or participating in Department of Agriculture programs if they are associated with a hostile foreign government such as China, Russia, Venezuela, Iran, and Cuba.
With this measure, we are doing our part in protecting national security as well as the sanctity of our commonwealth’s agricultural industry.
We also join more than 30 other states in their enactment of similar measures to fight back against hostile foreign encroachment on our farmland, and continuing our assurance that the logistics, infrastructure, and operational capacity of our armed forces are protected both at home and abroad. With this bill becoming law, we are closing a door which has stood open to our nation’s enemies for far too long, and proving yet again despite any of their new weapons, tactics, or threats we will always stand ready to defend those who defend us