Ohio lawmakers are weighing a proposal to bar foreign adversaries from owning land within 25 miles of military bases or critical infrastructure.
House Bill 1, Ohio’s Property Protection Act, would expand the Save Our Farmland and Protect Our National Security Act. The earlier law banned some governments, businesses, and people from obtaining agricultural land.
“As legislators, we have a responsibility to protect Ohio from those who seek to undermine and destroy our American values and way of life,” Ohio Rep. Angie King, R-Celina, said in prepared testimony to the House Public Safety Committee, which held a first hearing on the measure. “The Peoples Republic of China – Communist China – has not hidden the fact that despite being a major trading partner of the United States, [it] has positioned itself as an adversary of the U.S., politically and economically, with the stated intention of ensuring they overtake America as the world’s leading power.
“It is also no secret that China uses nontraditional means to gather intelligence within the boundaries of the United States,” King added. “In fact, the U.S. Department of Justice calls Chinese espionage the FBI’s greatest counterintelligence priority. Land ownership by nations like Communist China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Russia, and North Korea carry fundamentally different risks and challenges than from friendly or allied nations such as Canada or the Netherlands.”
The proposal reintroduces House Bill 212 from the last legislative session.
According to King, half of the country’s states limit foreign farmland ownership. Since 2023, the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia enacted new foreign land ownership laws or tightened existing laws on the books.
“Our plan to capture these bad actors is through the land conveyance form and requiring an affirmation that the buyer is not prohibited from purchasing under the provisions of the bill and it grants our local sheriffs the ability to investigate and refer any violations to the county prosecutor,” state Rep. Roy Klopfenstein, R-Haviland, said in prepared testimony.
According to a fiscal analysis from the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, the proposal could have some ancillary impacts.
For example, the bill could increase costs for county auditors, sheriffs and prosecutors “by indeterminate amounts” concerning protected property. Court costs could also increase, but potential sales proceeds from forced land sales could cover the increased costs.
Additionally, the Ohio Secretary of State, an office that keeps a registry of people who threaten agricultural production, could see costs increase due to the additional types of threats to be considered — which the bill broadens to include criminal enterprises and gangs — in compiling a registry of foreign adversaries and other people subject to the bill’s restrictions.
The bill’s limitation on demand for Ohio real property may lower property values and tax revenues.
“Few if any areas of the state would not be within 25 miles of one or the other of these types of properties,” according to an LSC bill analysis.
The bill exempts people who are U.S. citizens or nationals from the protected property prohibition as they are not acquiring the property as an agent, fiduciary, or trustee of a person subject to the prohibition. It also exempts protected property owners later subject to the prohibition if they do not procure more protected property.
“While the policies of certain authoritarian countries are noted as [threats] to our American values and way of life, it’s essential to distinguish them from American citizens who are of the same descent or heritage,” King said. “It is also important to note that the actions of these adversarial authoritarian governments do not always represent the views or values of their people.”
