The Texas Senate on the floor adopted the conference committee report on Senate Bill 17 after debate that, according to the bill sponsor, included hours of deliberations in both chambers.

Senator Lois Kolkhorst, the sponsor who moved adoption, told colleagues the conference report combines changes from the House and Senate versions to strengthen prohibitions on purchases of Texas land and natural resources by specified foreign adversaries or other designated entities. "This is a bill that keeps foreign adversaries, our enemies, from being able to buy Texas land out from underneath us," Kolkhorst said on the floor.

The conference report restores a resident homestead exemption but limits it to persons lawfully present, narrows the lease terms that were debated, and incorporates House additions including a process by which the governor — after consulting the Department of Public Safety director and the Homeland Security Council — may designate or remove a country or transnational criminal organization for purposes of the law. The House also added criminal and civil penalties and a requirement that the attorney general adopt rules for implementation.

Kolkhorst described other differences between versions as clarifications to definitions (including agriculture land, governing person and company domiciled) and changes to how a designated country appears on the U.S. intelligence community's annual threat assessments. She also thanked members of the Texas House of Representatives, singling out Representative Cole Hefner and committee chair Hughes for their roles in the negotiations.

The Senate secretary called the roll. "There being 25 ayes and 6 nays, the conference committee report on Senate Bill 17 is adopted," the presiding officer announced.

The legislation, as described on the floor, will apply to purchases or acquisitions that occur on or after the date of a governor's designation or removal, and includes language for rulemaking by the attorney general and a severability clause added by the House. The Senate sponsor characterized the final product as a national-security measure aimed at preventing hostile actors from acquiring Texas real property.

No additional procedural actions were recorded in the transcript excerpt provided.