A group of Republican senators, led by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, introduced a bill Thursday that would bar foreign adversaries from purchasing land near U.S. military bases and training areas.

The Protecting Military Installations and Ranges Act would expand the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to include real estate investments in the U.S. by entities linked to China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea, if they are located within 100 miles of a military installation or 50 miles of a military training route, special use airspace, controlled firing area, or military operations area.

“Foreign adversaries are exploiting loopholes to acquire land near our military bases and training routes, jeopardizing the safety of our troops and the integrity of our operations,” Cruz said in a news release.

The legislation is co-sponsored by Republican Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Ted Budd of North Carolina, Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and Tom Cotton of Arkansas. It would prohibit the Pentagon and the Department of Transportation from issuing final determinations regarding projects that involve a transaction under review by CFIUS until it has concluded its review.

“Our adversaries are doing everything they can to claim land dangerously close to some of our nation’s most important military installations and ranges,” Tuberville said in the news release. “Allowing land ownership by Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran in our sovereign country is a slippery slope. Alabama is home to five military installations that are integral to our national security — if a bad actor is anywhere within a 100-mile radius, we need to know.”

Cruz introduced the bill in the early days of the last Congress in February 2023, but it never made it out of the Democrat-controlled Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. The prospects could be brighter given the upper chamber is now controlled by Republicans.

National security concerns have been raised the past two years about companies with ties to foreign adversaries, especially China, gobbling up land near U.S. military bases. The New York Post reported in June that 19 bases from Florida to Hawaii are in close proximity to land bought by Chinese entities and could be exploited by spies working for the communist nation.

In November, the Biden administration’s Treasury Department issued a final rule that expanded CFIUS’s jurisdiction by more than 60 military bases and installations across 30 states. Cruz’s legislation would cover all of them in the U.S.

“America’s adversaries have no business purchasing land in our country, especially near military bases,” Cotton said in the news release. “This important legislation addresses a serious hole in our national security.”

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