A House bill that looks to bar adversarial nations from buying up land and companies in Louisiana is headed to the House Floor Tuesday.
House Bill 537 provides for a prohibition against foreign adversaries purchasing, leasing, or acquiring land in Louisiana.
WWL talked with the author of the bill, State Representative Valarie Hodges from Denham Springs.
She says the bill will protect crucial assets in the state.
"The State Department named these nations for a reason," Hodges explains. "We're not addressing individuals that want to come here to study or buy an apartment. This is critical infrastructure such as a port, such as chemical refineries, or things like that."
Hodges says protecting Louisiana from foreign adversaries is the reason she crafted the bill.
"You can't deny that the countries named on the foreign adversaries list are there for a reason. And they want to see the demise of America," Hodges says. "And I believe that because of where we sit Louisiana is an essential component of the national infrastructure because of our ports, our military bases, our commerce. Louisiana is the gateway to the entire United States."
Keeping assets like critical infrastructure, and valuable farmlands from being bought up by nations like Iran, China, or Russia is at the heart of House Bill 537.
"We just want to protect the sovereignty of Louisiana and other states are doing this. Fourteen other states have done this, in fact, some states have done much more stringent restrictions."
Hodges says the bills in other states have strong bi-partisan support and she expects the same kind of cooperation when the entire house takes up debate on the bill tomorrow.