Rep. Bascom's bill on foreign adversaries passes through House

(INDIANAPOLIS) – A bill authored by State Rep. Garrett Bascom has passed through the Indiana House of Representatives. 

House Bill 1099 was written to protect Hoosier technology, intellectual property and land from foreign adversaries.

"This bill would add new protections and transparency to government technology contracts, protect sensitive academic fields from outside threats and prohibit adversarial countries from owning or leasing Hoosier land,” Bascom said. 

The U.S. Department of Commerce maintains a list of adversarial countries including Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. 

According to Bascom, the bill would require contractors or subcontractors involved in state and local technology contracts to certify, under penalty of perjury, that they are not owned, controlled by or acting as an agent of a foreign adversary.

Bascom said the bill would further protect intellectual property by requiring students from adversarial countries, who are not dual citizens or permanent residents of the U.S., to pass a security review before being admitted into qualifying programs such as engineering, computer science and more at state education institutions.

This bill would also prohibit people and entities acting on behalf of these adversarial countries from acquiring or leasing land in Indiana. Existing land ownership by people or entities from adversarial countries could continue as long as they aren't acting as an agent for that country.

House Bill 1099 now moves to the Senate for consideration.