Congress moves to strip states of power to restrict foreign land ownership
H.R. 7053 — Preemption of Real Property Discrimination Act · Filed by Al Green (D-TX) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 14, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill nullifies state and local laws that ban or restrict foreign nationals from buying real estate. It allows the federal government and foreign buyers harmed by such restrictions to sue in federal court to overturn those state laws and obtain court orders blocking their enforcement.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is to void state laws restricting foreign real estate purchases and create a federal private right of action to enforce that preemption. It is a straightforward federalism override, not a hidden rider or complex regulatory scheme.
What the text implies
- Preemption applies to ALL state restrictions on foreign ownership, including those enacted for national security, agricultural preservation, or community stability — no carve-outs for sensitive sectors or strategic assets.
- Private right of action allows foreign nationals to sue U.S. states directly in federal court, shifting litigation costs and enforcement burden to states and creating a new federal cause of action against state sovereignty.
- No reciprocity requirement: foreign nationals gain unrestricted U.S. real estate access regardless of whether their home countries permit American citizens to own land there.
- Attorney General enforcement authority creates dual enforcement pathway (federal + private), potentially flooding federal courts with real estate disputes and state-law challenges.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens in states with foreign-ownership restrictions lose the ability to enforce democratically enacted local policy protecting domestic land ownership and community control. Foreign nationals and international investors gain unrestricted access to U.S. real estate, potentially driving up property prices and concentrating land ownership outside domestic hands, while citizens bear the cost of federal preemption of their own state law.
Who stands to gain
- foreign investors and international real estate funds
- multinational real estate development companies
- foreign sovereign wealth funds
- international property management firms
Named in the bill
U.S. Attorney General, State governments, District of Columbia, U.S. territories, Federal courts
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 5 Democrats.
- Jan 14, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 14, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $150,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 20 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Al Green, the sponsor, reported $72,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- The Metrohealth System — $150,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (991 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jan 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress moves to strip states of power to restrict foreign land ownership” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr7053 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.