Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Critical Infrastructure Foreign Ownership topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Panel advances bill creating state review of property conveyances near critical infrastructure to screen for foreign adversary risk
Summary
Senate File 76 passed the Appropriations Committee after Homeland Security outlined tasks to identify conveyances near defined critical infrastructure, but officials warned the program requires more staff and technical capacity than the bill’s initial fiscal note anticipated.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to advance Senate File 76, a bill that would expand state procedures to identify and, if warranted, investigate property conveyances near sites designated as critical infrastructure and screen for ownership by foreign adversaries.
Lynn Budd, director of the Office of Homeland Security, told the panel the office has been working under last year’s statute to identify lifeline-sector critical infrastructure—energy, communications, water and wastewater—and to define critical-infrastructure zones. Budd said the office favors reversing the statutory data flow so conveyance data would be sent to the state for secure comparison rather than having county clerks perform the sorting. "That is 1 reason for us to try and reverse the flow of the data, would be that we will keep, in on a secure server, this data in our office so that it does not have an opportunity to become compromised," Budd said.
Budd said the technical tasks are substantial: developing software to match parcel conveyances against defined zones, establishing means to identify beneficial foreign ownership, and creating divestiture or other remedies when warranted. "We do not have capacity to create this program at this point in time... while the bill does give us 2 additional folks... we don't believe that we can do that with just 2 people," Budd said, urging careful consideration of staffing and fiscal needs.
Committee members and stakeholders emphasized national-security context. Budd called the issue a national-security concern for Wyoming, citing protections around F.E. Warren Air Force Base and other military assets. She also noted limits in information-sharing: the state may not know when the federal Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is conducting an investigation, complicating coordination.
Travis Detaime, director of the Wyoming Mining Association, supported narrowing language to target genuine national-security risks rather than broadly sweeping up non-adversarial foreign investment. He said industry sought clearer definitions so long-standing, legitimate foreign-owned companies would not be unintentionally impacted.
After public comment, the committee voted by roll call to pass the bill. Senators Driscoll, Garou, Larson, Smith and Chairman Salazar recorded aye votes and the bill advanced. Budd and others told the committee that implementation will require additional staffing, software development and close coordination with federal partners and other state agencies.
