After his bill to criminalize foreign ownership of land in Oklahoma was soundly killed in a House Committee last week, Rep. Jim Shaw said the existing law defended by one legislator has “no teeth” in it and has not resulted in one legal case.
Shaw, the Republican legislator from Chandler who has been at odds with legislative leadership ever since he upset veteran Rep. Kevin Wallace in the summer of 2024, took to social media last week to defend his HB1453.
“Now, first of all, I authored this bill because a couple of years back in 2023, the bill that was passed into law on foreign land ownership was a do-nothing bill with no teeth or enforcement capabilities in it whatsoever,” he stated.
During the committee hearing, Rep. Chris Kannady, (R-OKC) accused Shaw of “political posturing” and “political pandering” and charged the bill would only put Oklahomans at the risk of possible terrorism.
““I have grave concerns about the changes to this bill. There was a reason why the bill was held over from last year, because it waters down our current statute. And we cannot do that,” said Kannady during the hearing.
Shaw stated in his social media message that he visited with every member of the committee but Rep. Kannady refused every attempt that he made to meet with him to discuss the bill in advance. Rep. Shaw further said he reviewed his bill with the House attorney and none of the contentions raised by Kannady ever came up in the reviews.
He also said he was open to a friendly amendment to settle Rep. Kannady’s concerns.
“But it’s clear to me that Chris Kennedy does not support criminalizing hostile foreign ownership of land, and he wants to simply maintain political coverage for the unenforced law that’s on the books today that he helped pass a couple years ago. And I say unenforced because the AG’s office confirmed with me a few days ago that since they passed that into law in 2023 with the affidavit form that you have to sign when you close on a property today, they have prosecuted zero cases in relation to that piece of law. Zero.”
Rep. Shaw further said when Kannady, during the hearing, suggested the bill would endanger Oklahomans, he was so stunned he didn’t know how to respond. The Republican from Chandler explained his HB1453 was not an amendment to existing law, but a new measure to criminalize the foreign ownership of land in the state and to include forced divestment of the land.
Rep. Shaw called the defeat of his bill a “huge disservice to the people of Oklahoma” and charged that “ hostile foreign actors are still going to continue to purchase new land and own land and operate next door to families and communities, all because Representative Kennedy and our leadership in both chambers have a virtual stranglehold on the Capitol.”
Shaw asserted that what happened in the committee should deeply concern every single person in Oklahoma. And he contended that until the leadership at the Capitol is more afraid of the voters and the people, “nothing’s going to change.”