Kansas’ governor has rejected proposed restrictions on foreign land ownership

TOPEKA, Kan. – Kansas’ proposed restrictions on foreign land ownership failed Friday when the state’s Democratic governor vetoed a bill that top Republican lawmakers argued would protect military bases from Chinese espionage.

The top GOP leader of the Kansas House of Representatives accused Gov. Laura Kelly of “apathy” toward serious national security threats from China and other nations the U.S. government declared to be “concerning” adversaries, including Cuba, Iraq, North Korea and Venezuela. The bill would have prohibited aliens from those countries from owning more than 10% of nonresidential property within 100 miles of military installations – or most of Kansas.

A Kansas State University report last fall said that a single acre of privately owned agricultural land in Kansas was Chinese-owned and that all foreign individuals and companies owned 2.4% of the state’s 49 million acres of private agricultural land. The bill would have required the university to prepare annual reports on all foreign real estate holdings, including nonagricultural corporate property.

Kelly said in her veto message that while Kansas needs stronger protections from foreign adversaries, the bill is so “overly broad” that it could disrupt “legitimate investments and business relationships.”

“I am not prepared to sign a bill that has the potential to harm the state’s future prosperity and economic development,” Kelly said in her veto message.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration, Kansas exported $14.1 billion worth of products in 2023. China was its fourth-largest trading partner, with exports worth $848 million, after Mexico, Canada and Japan.

But Kansas already restricts corporate ownership of agricultural land. According to the National Agricultural Law Center, more than 20 other states restrict ownership of foreign land.

In early 2023, before it was shot down, a Chinese spy balloon floated across US skies for several days, including over northeast Kansas, home to Fort Leavenworth, home of the US Army’s college for training commanders. This increased interest in restrictions on foreign land ownership in Kansas, although concerns already existed due to the construction of a national biosafety laboratory near Kansas State University.

Kansas House Majority Leader Chris Croft, a Kansas City-area Republican and retired Army officer who was among the bill’s most vocal supporters, said Kelly’s veto left his military bases and other critical infrastructure “wide open to opposing foreign governments.” let.

“The assets of this state are too important for us to sit idle and wait until it is too late,” Croft said in a statement after the veto.

Some conservative Republicans, including Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, pushed for even stricter restrictions. Kobach supported a plan to ban all foreign ownership of more than 3 hectares of land, although a new state agency could allow exceptions.

“Despite the governor’s apathy, we will continue to work to protect Kansas and its citizens from those foreign villains who seek to exploit loopholes in land ownership,” said House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Republican from Wichita.

Some Republicans in the state Senate balked at the restrictions, and the bill appeared to fall short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. The bill would have given affected foreign individuals and companies two years to divest themselves of their Kansas properties.

Critics attributed the bill’s support to xenophobia. They suggested that the main effect would be to force immigrants – including those fleeing repressive regimes – to sell their shops and restaurants.

“To the extent that this bill affects anyone, it affects everyday people, those who are trying to live the American dream,” Democratic Rep. Melissa Oropeza of Kansas City, Kansas, said before a vote on the bill.