Republican Tennessee Rep. Mark Green will reintroduce legislation on Thursday aimed at protecting American land.
The bill, known as the Protect America’s Lands Act, would prevent the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from creating Natural Asset Companies (NACs) — or proposed for-profit corporations intended to maximize the value of natural assets and their production on public or private lands — according to a copy of bill obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Notably, NACs have come under scrutiny over claims that they could potentially lead to foreign adversaries gaining control of valuable land resources in the U.S., and harming rural economies like those based on agriculture.
“As a businessman and conservationist, this issue really hits home,” Green told the DCNF. “The creation of NACs would be a terrible deal for Americans. Our foreign adversaries are chomping at the bit for us to put our most precious asset for sale—American land. We’ve got to keep them and environmental zealots as far from our public lands as possible.”
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) submitted a proposal to the SEC in September 2023 that would have allowed it to list NACs on the exchange. The exchange’s proposal faced major opposition from many state officials, who wrote a letter in January 2024 urging the Biden-Harris administration to reject the rule, claiming that NACs would have “catastrophic” effects, such as reducing economic activity in rural areas of the U.S.
The NYSE ultimately withdrew its proposed rule from the SEC’s consideration on Jan. 17, 2024.
The Protect America’s Lands Act is being cosponsored by several members of Congress, including Republican Tennessee Rep. Andrew Ogles, Republican Georgia Rep. Mike Collins, Republican Texas Rep. Randy Weber and Republican Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman. The legislation was first introduced in the House alongside a companion bill in the Senate during the 118th Congress, but the bills did not make it to a vote in either chamber.
“American resources must continue to benefit Americans—and we need to keep it that way for future generations,” Green told the DCNF.
Several lawmakers celebrated the NYSE’s decision to withdraw the NACs rule proposal, including Republican Arkansas Rep. Bruce Westerman, who said in a January 2024 statement that the decision marked a “victory for Americans as our public lands stay firmly in the hands of our citizens.” Meanwhile, Hageman wrote in an op-ed published the same month that “we dodged a bullet” with NACs.
Hageman further wrote that the Biden-Harris administration was “desperate to pander to the extreme environmental mob — and the sacrifice they offered was control of those lands that belong to all of us.”
Some lawmakers have raised concerns that the growing number of foreign investments in U.S. land poses potentially major risks to U.S. national security. One potential national security risk is foreign adversaries such as China purchasing farm land near U.S. military installations, according to a January 2024 report from the Government Accountability Office.
Foreign persons and entities held an interest in more than 43.4 million acres of agricultural land in the U.S. as of December 2022, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates.
Still, left-wing eco groups such as the Rockefeller Foundation have expressed support for NACs, claiming that the assets would help boost biodiversity and capitalize on the use of natural resources.
Former President Joe Biden introduced a slew of green energy regulations during his sole term as part of his signature climate agenda, including signing the Inflation Reduction Act into law in August 2022, which has since disbursed billions in funding for various green energy projects including conservation activities on private lands.
Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has introduced several executive actions to overturn many Biden-era green energy policies, including signing an executive order on Jan. 20 to “unleash America’s affordable and reliable energy and natural resources” and “rebuild” the nation’s “economic and military security.”
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