TOPEKA — The Kansas House plunged into national security affairs Wednesday by voting to approve a package of legislation aimed at preventing China and five other “countries of concern” from harming Kansas by limiting business and property ownership, grounding imported government and law enforcement drones and mandating divestment of state-managed investments.
House Republicans said the trifecta of bills was necessary to get the state out in front of threats emanating from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, and both China and Hong Kong. On the other side of the aisle, Democrats questioned GOP perceptions of the danger and the potential of Senate Bills 37, 172 and 271 to have a meaningful impact. All three were given first-round approval in the House, with final action likely Wednesday.
Rep. Bill Sutton, a Gardner Republican, encouraged representatives to embrace SB 271 to prohibit government agencies, including law enforcement agencies, from buying and operating unmanned aircraft with components or software produced in any of the six countries and Hong Kong. The drone bill passed 83-40, sending it to the Senate.
“In a nutshell,” Sutton said, “there are drones currently being used by law enforcement. Some of the best and and most economical are created by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), with surveillance capabilities. That’s kind of a worry for us.”
The bill would set aside $2.5 million to reimburse agencies for the cost of replacing drones during the next five years. Drones thought to be a threat would be turned into Attorney General Kris Kobach.
He would transfer the aircraft to Wichita State University and Kansas State University-Salina engineering programs, which would split $500,000 to conduct research into whether recording, processing or transmitting capabilities had been used for espionage. The universities could retrofit the drones with nonthreatening components in an effort to put them back into service.
‘Threat is real’
Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, said he was wary of legislation creating a government drone buy-back program without the universities having first confirmed foreign-manufactured drones were infected with spyware or had the marking of nefarious activities. Apparently, he said, Kansas insiders have known for several years about shortcomings of drones in hands of the Kansas Highway Patrol and other agencies.
“Really? Really?” Carmichael said during House debate. “There’s a reason that some people think people from Kansas are bumpkins. I think this is an example of it. Here’s the bad news, my friends. This has turned into Asian-prejudice day in the Kansas Legislature and it’s not a proud moment.”
Rep. Shawn Tarwater, the Stilwell Republican and chair of the House Commerce, Labor and Economic Development Committee, denounced the Democrat’s speech trashing the committee’s attempt to deal with threats.
“That doesn’t deserve a response,” Tarwater said. “I’m trying not to make the press this year in negative ways, so I’ll pretend like I don’t know that man. We need solutions, not arguments.”
Tarwater said he was convinced the Legislature had to implement the drone, investment and land ownership bills. He said Carmichael was right about one point. It shouldn’t have taken lawmakers three years to respond to threats posed by drone tied to countries of concern, he said.
“We have to do something. If we sit idly by on this, and the previous two bills, we’re going to be sorry. The threat is real. There are some people in this room who know exactly what will happen and how close we are to it happening, but they can’t speak to it because it’s top secret information,” Tarwater said.
Kobach’s message
The House voted to adopt SB 172 to implement a prohibition on citizens or residents of “countries of concern” acquiring an interest in nonresidential real property located within 150 miles of the boundary of any military installation in Kansas or an adjacent state. In the case of Fort Riley, the exclusion zone would extend beyond Lincoln, Nebraska, to the north, Hays to the west, Winfield to the south and beyond Kauffman Stadium to the east.
The definition of military installation would include facilities under control of the U.S. Department of Defense, Kansas National Guard as well any federal or state agency “critical to the safety and security of Kansas or the United States.”
Under the bill approved 84-39, a foreign principal who owned or acquired interest in real property within that 150-mile radius would be required to register ownership with the Kansas attorney general within 90 days assuming the law was imposed on July 1. Property of those individuals would have to be divested within one year. However, the person from one of the designated countries who owned land in Kansas would be exempt if the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, determined the property didn’t raise a national security concern.
The legislation would allow any person to report suspected violations to the attorney general.
In a statement following first-round approval of the bill, Kobach said he appreciated the House’s attempt to address dangers posed by foreign land ownership in Kansas.
“In its current form, this bill will be very difficult to defend in court,” Kobach said. “There are problems with the House bill that I hope will be addressed in conference committee.”
Rep. Jason Probst, D-Hutchinson, said he wasn’t convinced there was an immediate threat posed by foreign ownership of land in Kansas. He said he was uncomfortable with a provision opening a hotline to the attorney general to gather intelligence on suspected violators and a provision setting the stage for forced divesture of land, he said.
“A lot of bad things in our history have begun with fear,” Probst said. “We don’t have a great track record of behaving responsibly when we’re afraid. We have to be cautious. We have to be respectful. We have to measure our words.”
Divestment program
Wichita GOP Rep. Nick Hoheisel, chairman of the House Financial Institutions and Pensions Committee, urged colleagues to support SB 37 to require the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System and the state’s Pooled Money Investment Portfolio to divest from “countries of concern” within two years.
The legislation passed 85-38 called on state-managed funds to remove 50% of investments from those countries by July 2025 and to completely withdraw by July 2026. The bill would prohibit investments or deposits in banks or companies located in a country of concern. In addition, state agencies wouldn’t be permitted to procure finished goods or services from a foreign principal subject to the state’s exclusion list.
If a new country was added to the list of undesirables, according to the bill, the state-controlled funds would have one year to transfer assets out of that newcomer. If a country took action to prohibit selling, divesting or withdrawing publicly traded securities, the bill would expect the state-managed fund in Kansas to remove 100% of holdings no later than one year from when that country’s action ended.
“Navigating today’s complex global landscape, it’s critical our state’s investments and contracts are aligned with our national security interests,” Hoheisel said.
He said the objective was to move Kansas resources away from investments that supported regimes damaging to human rights, international stability and U.S. national security.
