Proposed restrictions on foreign land ownership in Kansas died Friday when the state’s Democratic governor vetoed a bill from Republican lawmakers that they said would protect military bases from Chinese espionage. did.
The top Republican leader in the Kansas House of Representatives called out Gov. Laura Kelly for the serious national security threat posed by China and other countries the U.S. government has declared adversaries of “concern,” including Cuba, Iraq, North Korea and Venezuela. He accused them of being “indifferent.” The bill would prohibit foreign nationals from those countries from owning more than 10% of nonresidential property within 100 miles of military installations or within most of Kansas.
A Kansas State University report last fall found that every acre of private farmland in Kansas is Chinese-owned, and that all foreign individuals and businesses own 2.4% of the state’s 49 million acres of private farmland. It is said that he was The bill required universities to prepare annual reports on all foreign real estate ownership, including nonagricultural business real estate.
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In his veto message, Kelly said that Kansas needs stronger protections against foreign adversaries, but that the bill was too “broad” and that “legitimate investments and business “It could disrupt the relationship,” he said.
In his veto message, Kelly said, “I will not sign any bill that could harm our state’s future prosperity and economic development.”
Kansas exported $14.1 billion worth of manufactured goods in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of International Trade. China was the country’s fourth largest trading partner, after Mexico, Canada and Japan, with exports valued at $848 million.
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has vetoed a bill that would restrict foreign land ownership. (Rich Sugg/Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
But Kansas already limits corporate ownership of farmland. More than 20 other states have restrictions on foreign land ownership, according to the National Farm Law Center.
In early 2023, a Chinese reconnaissance balloon flew over the skies of the United States, including over northeastern Kansas, home to Fort Leavenworth, home of the Army’s Command Training College, for several days before being shot down. This increased interest in restricting foreign land ownership in Kansas, a concern that already existed due to the construction of the National Biosecurity Laboratory near Kansas State University.
Kansas House Majority Leader Chris Kroft, a Kansas City-area Republican and a veteran who is one of the bill’s most vocal supporters, said Kelly’s veto would close military bases and other important buildings. He said infrastructure was left “wide open to hostile foreign governments.”
“This state’s assets are too important to sit back and wait until it’s too late,” Croft said in a statement after the veto.
Some conservative Republicans, including Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, pushed for even stronger restrictions. Kobach supported a plan to ban all foreign ownership of land larger than three acres, allowing a new state commission to grant exceptions.
“Despite the governor’s indifference, we continue to work to protect Kansas and its residents from foreign bad actors who seek to exploit land ownership loopholes,” said House Speaker Dan Hawkins (R-Wichita). I’ll go,” he said.
Several Republicans in the state Senate have balked at the restrictions, and the bill is expected to fall just short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. The bill would give affected foreign individuals and businesses two years to sell their Kansas assets.
Critics suggested that support for the bill was due to xenophobia. They suggested the main effect would be to force immigrants, including those fleeing repressive regimes, to sell their shops and restaurants.
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Democratic state Rep. Melissa Oropeza of Kansas City, Kansas, said ahead of the bill’s vote, “Just as this bill impacts everyone, it impacts ordinary people, people who are trying to achieve the American dream. It also has an impact.”
