Legislation introduced to address foreign adversary land purchases near U.S. military installations

A group of lawmakers recently introduced a measure designed to prevent adversaries from acquiring land near military bases, which they use to finance regimes and place military installations at risk.

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Reps. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Tony Gonzales (R-TX), and Pat Fallon (R-TX) introduced the Protecting Military Installations and Ranges Act of 2021, which restricts efforts by Russia, China, Iran, or North Korea to buy U.S. land within 100 miles of a military installation or 50 miles from military areas.

“America will not tolerate espionage and is empowered to counter the widespread nefarious actions of adversarial regimes,” Cruz, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said. “I am proud to introduce this commonsense bill to defend our national security interests and ensure regimes that threaten the United States – such as the Chinese Communist Party – don’t have the ability to purchase land in order to intercept and disrupt military activities.”

The legislators said the bill would also allow the Department of Defense (DOD) to prevent construction on any site under investigation and mandate sending reports on this construction to lawmakers.

“The Chinese Communist Party and our other adversaries should not be able to purchase land close to our military bases,” Rubio said. “If the United States is going to get serious about combatting China and other foreign adversaries, our government must prevent them from acquiring U.S. property without scrutiny. This legislation would address this national security threat by expanding government oversight and security around military installations.”