Sen. Lankford Introduces Bill Aimed At Stopping Purchases Of Oklahoma Land By Criminal Organizations

Oklahoma Senator James Lankford plans subsequent week to introduce a invoice — much like laws launched final yr by Rep. Frank Lucas — to assist forestall legal overseas entities from shopping for up agricultural land in Oklahoma or anyplace else within the nation.

Public security and narcotics officers in Oklahoma stated one of many unexpected penalties of legalizing medical marijuana is the best way that drug trafficking organizations at the moment are working inside the state’s medical hashish program.

They stated an growing variety of worldwide legal entities are fraudulently acquiring Oklahoma licenses, which seem reliable on the floor, and permitting them to site visitors their marijuana to black markets all through the US.

Lankford stated the issue has uncovered a loophole within the system: neither the U.S. Division of Agriculture nor another entity screens agricultural purchases by overseas operators.

“The state’s ‘authorized’ marijuana commerce has…predictably attracted transnational legal organizations to Oklahoma which might be trafficking medicine and folks,” stated Sen. Lankford (R-OK) in an announcement. “The transnational legal organizations have partnered with Chinese language-nationals to purchase land and companies all through Oklahoma. It is a nationwide safety challenge and a human rights challenge. We have to know who’s shopping for our land, how they’re utilizing it and if any legal exercise is happening.”

Lankford stated his Safety and Oversight of Worldwide Landholdings (SOIL) Act would deter legal funding in US agriculture by requiring Committee on Overseas Funding in the US (CFIUS) overview of agriculture actual property purchases by sure overseas entities, banning federal help for sure foreign-held actual property holdings and broadening disclosure necessities for land purchases made by overseas entities.

Most vital, Lankford stated, is getting the USDA a seat on the desk with CFIUS in order that it may be a part of the method of reviewing farmland purchases.

Congressman Lucas (R-OK3) launched related laws — the Agriculture Safety Threat Assessment Act — in 2021.

Earlier this summer season, Lucas and different Republican lawmakers, noting with alarm that “Chinese language land holdings alone elevated from 13,720 acres to 352,140 acres between 2010 and 2020,” despatched a letter to Agriculture Secretary Vilsack urging motion to carry extra transparency to those purchases as a result of “our constituents need to know as a lot as potential about overseas acquisition of home farmland, no matter whether or not we’re involved in regards to the motives of the events concerned.”

Lucas and Lankford seem like on the identical web page.

“I need to ensure that now we have a nationwide verify, identical to we do on a expertise entity, [but] additionally for agriculture,” Lankford stated in an interview Thursday.

Lankford stated this isn’t a partisan challenge and that he’s had good conversations with the Biden Administration in regards to the challenge.