Biden admin policy could let foreign governments control US land, GOP congresswoman warns

A House Republican warned a Biden administration-backed strategy could allow foreign governments and wealthy elites to take control of federal lands without congressional approval while speaking with The National Desk (TND) Wednesday.

The strategy calls for natural capital accounting, which standardizes measurements of American natural resources. The resulting system enables the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to permit the New York Stock Exchange to list companies which own natural assets like pollination, wind or air. The practice allows wealthy figures or foreign governments to dictate the use of U.S. land, according to Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo.

“What this did is it would allow, for example, Bill Gates to come in and buy the natural assets of Shoshone National Forest in the state of Wyoming and then he would be able to dictate what kind of activities could take place on that land,” Rep. Hageman told TND. “It also allowed foreign nations, such as the Chinese Communist Party, to invest in natural asset companies meaning that they could come in and they could own, our [Bureau of Land Management] lands.”

This strategy, the congresswoman said, could allow foreign governments to interfere with U.S. mining operations or cattle grazing. She claims it could also open the door for wealthy activists to take climate concerns into their own hands.

“As far as a Bill Gates or a Michael Bloomberg, both of them have become awfully radical on the idea of global warming and climate change,” Rep. Hageman said. “I can see them investing some of their billions of dollars to come in and say ‘we're going to try to stop cattle production and sheep production in the interior west.’”

In pushing for the strategy, the Biden administration appears to be attempting to bypass Congress, the representative added. The congresswoman said she organized a hearing grilling major figures in the Bureau of Land Management upon learning of the push.

“My first reaction to that is ‘you're trying to do something that's worth a hundred trillion dollars a year and you don't think Congress ought to be able to weigh in on this?’” Rep. Hageman said. “Once we found out about this and my office found out about it last October, we started writing letters to the SEC saying, whoa, whoa ... what are you doing here?”

The representative added governors of states such as Oregon, California and Washington should begin speaking out to protect their states against this strategy.

Rep. Hageman joined the House in November after defeating former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., cheered the appointment, saying “Harriet Hageman has spent a lifetime defending Wyoming’s natural resources,” adding “she is the conservative fighter our state needs.”