Georgia’s legislature is joining a nationwide fight to curtail what foreign owned companies can purchase and attempt to profit off the hard work of Americans for their own gain.
State Sen. Jason Anavitarte (R-Dallas) joined 33 other colleagues in putting forth Senate Bill 420 as a potential law to curtail that activity, which hopes to ensure that no nationally-sponsored corporations or individuals can buy land anywhere near a military installation, or attempt to gain majority share in ownership of agricultural land.
SB 420 now proceeds to the Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee.
“Georgia’s military installations are currently vulnerable to foreign adversaries, a crisis that could be exacerbated by a single bad actor at any moment,” Anavitarte said in a release about the bill. “This Bill, its regulations and penalties aims to prevent that scenario by limiting the exposure experienced by Georgia’s agricultural land and these military installations. Alongside the other 33 sponsors of this Bill, I am pleased to see it make progress toward becoming a law.”
SB 420 includes language and regulations regarding currently held interests, residential properties, and the current economic importance of agricultural product testing sites.
Georgia joins a group of states across the country seeking to ban corporations from buying land and building facilities on behalf of governments like China or Saudi Arabia, who seek to use American resources for the benefit of nations who might be have nefarious intent now or in the future.
Montana and Missouri’s governors banned the practice, and legislation was just announced earlier this week in Indiana. Bills in Virginia and Idaho, Alabama and seven other states were introduced in 2023.
Last year, Anavitarte was among those who filed legislation to ban TikTok in state government after questions were raised about the data the service is sending back to servers ultimately under the jurisdiction of security services in the CCP.
Anavitarte said he saw his latest legislative filing this week as an extension of the same national security issue for the United States: foreign control of vital interests for Americans across the country, and Georgia in specific.
Read the full text of the legislation here.
