Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) introduced a bill banning foreign adversaries from purchasing American homes.
The bill, called the Ban Chinese Communist and Islamist Home Ownership Act, requires the divestment of all current housing ownership by foreign adversaries.
“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the President shall direct the heads of the Federal departments and agencies to promulgate rules and regulations to prohibit the purchase and ensure divestment of housing located in the United States by a covered person,” the bill reads. The legislation affects foreign entities of concern, foreign adversaries or state sponsors of terrorism, and foreign countries of concern.
“American homes belong to American families — not the Chinese Communist Party, foreign Islamists, or our geopolitical foes,” Roy said in a statement. “While Americans struggle to afford housing, hostile regimes are buying up our land and neighborhoods. This bill slams the door on foreign adversaries owning American housing and forces them to sell what they already control. We’re putting America’s homes back in American hands.”
A similar bill seeks to block adversaries from purchasing U.S. farmland. The bill, Protecting U.S. Farmland and Sensitive Sites from Foreign Adversaries Act, seeks to close “dangerous loopholes” and “ensures the United States has the tools to stop these farmland deals before they threaten our security,” Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) said earlier this month.
The legislation specifically seeks to “protect U.S. food security, provide the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States greater jurisdiction over land purchases, impose special guards against foreign adversary purchases of land in the United States near sensitive sites,” and “expand the definition of sensitive sites,” among other matters. Countries listed in the bill as foreign adversaries include China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela.
