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The Blast: The 2023 Texas policy showdown [1]

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Date: 2023-03 

TEXAS LAND, FOREIGN OWNERSHIP AND A BIG DEBATE

State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst’s bill that would restrict certain foreign entities from owning property in Texas is not just grabbing attention here, but also in Washington, D.C., and abroad.



The Senate State Affairs Committee on Thursday slogged through nearly five hours of public testimony on a committee substitute to Kolkhorst’s Senate Bill 147 and Sen. Charles Perry’s Senate Bill 711, which addresses the same issue. Helen Shih, a Houston-based Chinese American community organizer, said 139 people registered to testify, with 128 registered against both. Although the counts aren’t made official, committee staffers agreed with that ballpark figure.



State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, highlighted Perry’s bill during questions addressed to Kolkhorst about the enforcement mechanism in her bill, which prescribes the attorney general to investigate possible violations. By contrast, Perry’s bill would require people, businesses and governments from countries flagged by the U.S. government to notify sellers before purchasing land, allowing the seller to choose whether to complete the transaction.



Bettencourt stressed that Americans have lost their lives for the right for people to own property and to move here and be free. He also stressed that residents of the four countries blacklisted in Kolkhorst’s bill — China, Iran, North Korea and Russia — live in tyranny.



“It’s a sad day for those people to be in those countries, but it’s a wonderful day for everybody that testifies here to be heard … and listened to in a process that has a democratic republic at its core,” Bettencourt said.



Shih told The Blast that the bill had caught the attention of some back in China, who were watching the hearing from abroad.



“If this law passes in Texas, other states are going to pass similar laws,” Shih said.



In a statement Thursday afternoon, U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, an Austin Republican who chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, thanked Kolkhorst for filing the bill.



“As the spy balloon revealed, the Chinese Communist Party knows no bounds when it comes to espionage, and they are already making dangerous moves to secure land near our military bases,” McCaul said.



In a pair of tweets, another Austin Republican congressman, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, also thanked Kolkhorst. But he went one step further.



“Chinese Communists should not own Texas land. Hell — I’m not sure why we let ANY non-citizens own Texas land,” Roy wrote.

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