A constitutional amendment that would prevent foreign adversaries from owning land in Wyoming cleared the House Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Water Resources Committee on an 8-1 vote Tuesday — but will await some important clarifications on the House floor.
House Joint Resolution 2 raised several questions during committee deliberations, including how Wyoming LLCs presently work and who will determine the list of foreign adversaries.
“As I recall, we’ve tried to work this bill before, and (Wyoming LLCs) were one of the obstacles,” said Rep. John Eklund, R-Cheyenne. “You had attorneys saying they could probably just bypass all of what we would do and just set up an LLC and be owned by what looks like an American company or a friendly nation, and that would be part of the net we’d have to cast.”
Others wondered how to best fit Wyoming’s framework in with rapidly developing federal efforts, particularly given that those frameworks may change every four years, with each new administration.
“We are an individual state, and we have some sovereignty there,” said Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie. “But we’re also part of the United States of America, which I’m very proud to say. I think it sounds like there may be too many moving parts.
“We’ve got a congresswoman working on this. It sounds like the new federal administration is interested in doing something about this. So, not necessarily opposed to the idea, but I have concerns about putting this in our Constitution.”
Federal Push, Too
The congresswoman Provenza referred to is U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, who Rep. Dalton Banks, R-Cowley, said is leading a federal effort in that regard.
“Being in good communication with her office, we’re trying to do things so that everything is kind of flowing easily between her efforts and our efforts here in the state,” he said. “To the next question of who determines (foreign adversaries), it’s going to be based upon that federal definition in 15 CFR.”
Those countries are presently listed as People’s Republic of China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela, Banks said.
But not only is the shape of present federal efforts unknown, future administrations could change the list of adversaries in ways Wyomingites would not agree with, Provenza suggested.
“Consider that the next president is someone who wants to ban oil and gas and decides that an outside company or an outside country is an adversary to climate change work,” she said. “And now we’re targeting our companies that own land here in Wyoming that are doing coal or fossil fuels.”
Constitutional measures are not always easy to change and fix, she added.
“Maybe the next four years we don’t have a thing to worry about ,” she said. “But six years from now, maybe those foreign adversaries look differently, and we have to align our United States government and our Wyoming constitution. It’s just a question.”
Stockgrowers, Farm Bureau Support Measure
Both Wyoming Stock Growers Association and Wyoming Farm Bureau spoke in favor of the bill, and suggested the constitutional amendment should probably be run before voters first, before any other legislative changes.
“We’ve had these discussions the last couple of sessions about bills to limit foreign ownership, and every time the issue arises, ‘Would they withstand the constitutional challenge?’ And I think this is intended to address that,” Wyoming Stock Growers Executive Vice President Jim Magagna said. “Assuming that voters put this in place, there will still be a lot of questions. There will be questions about if an entity already owns some land, what’s the process for disposal? There will be a lot of things that will need to be addressed, both in legislation and in regulation, but I believe this is the right step.”
Magagna added he’d be very hesitant to move forward now with other foreign ownership legislation that’s dependent on passing a constitutional change.
Wyoming Farm Bureau’s Policy Advocate Director Brett Moline concurred with the idea that the constitutional measure is needed first.
“We can make that other legislation dependent upon this passing,” he said. “But I sit in strong support of this resolution.”
Military Base
Sen. Lynn Hutchings, R-Cheyenne, with the Senate Labor, Health and Social Services Committee, decided to chime in on testimony, to respond to the questions.
“I wasn’t going to speak until a question was raised,” she said. “This summer was hard summer for me, but at the beginning, a group of legislators from our neighboring state were getting together to discuss this very issue.
“One of our neighboring states is dealing with foreign adversaries coming in and purchasing land in their state near military facilities and it is really concerning.”
Hutchings said she’d asked the commander of F.E. Warren Air Force Base about what Wyoming could do to help and was told they’re “leaving everything up to the federal government.”
“But I think with the push around our neighboring states to do this, this is going to be so important for us to join in,” she said. “Especially with our military base being one that I think is very constitutional, and that is what we are protecting, the nation.
“We are in agreement with Article 4, Section 4 of our Constitution, and that is just to prevent our nation from being invaded. So, with that, I stand for this legislation, and hopefully by the time it gets to the other chamber, which I hope it does, we can have some answers to those questions that Rep. Provenza and other members of the committee have raised.”
In that same vein, Rep. Pepper Ottman, R-Riverton, who is on the House Ag Committee, mentioned the surveillance balloon that was later determined to have been sent by China and floated over parts of Wyoming.
“Nobody knew who it was or what it was from,” she said. “And it traversed this entire country until it went out to sea and then was handled. So, as we look at something like this, I believe, as Rep. Banks has said, we need to be on the front end of this because the world is very volatile.”
Amendment Wrangling
Who should determine who foreign adversaries are was one of the points of discussion that was deferred to later debate on the bill.
As committee members were wrestling with the right wording for an amendment, Rep. Tomi Strock, R-Douglas, suggested the committee send it to the House floor for amendments instead.
“After we’ve dug into it a little more, we can find out which wording would be best,” she suggested. “Once we get to visit with some lawyers or everyone, and then we could find out how this really works. Could we not make a big issue right this moment?”
A second reading amendment would be sponsored by one person, rather than the committee, and might have a greater chance of passing, Provenza suggested.
“Ultimately, we have other constitutional amendments that have, like, ‘as determined by the Legislature,’” Provenza said. “I believe our health care one has it. It will be up to the Legislature to determine adversaries. So I think you’re concerned about, like, would we have to go into a special session if we went to war, or something like that.
“It’s a valid consideration. It’s just a way of, like, do you want to give power to the federal government to make decisions on definitions, or do you want to give power to the state of Wyoming to do that?”
And with the federal government in play, federal criteria could come into play as well.
“So, a lot of balls in the air,” Provenza said.
Roll Call
Rep. John Eklund, R-Cheyenne withdrew his amendment to House Joint Resolution 2, clearing the way for a roll call vote.
Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, was the lone vote against the measure.
Other members of the committee all voted yes. They include Chairman Rep. John Winter, R-Thermopolis; Rep. Dalton Banks, R-Cowley; Rep. Bob Davis, R-Baggs; Eklund; Rep. Steve Johnson, R-Cheyenne; Rep. Pepper Ottman, R-Riverton; Rep. Mike Schmid, R-La Barge; and Rep. Tomi Strock, R-Douglas.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
