A top House Republican is probing the Biden administration’s sale of land near U.S. military bases to nonprofit groups with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) is investigating the Biden-era Department of Defense use of the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program (REPI), an initiative that allows the Pentagon to work with private groups on facilitating the purchase of legal agreements to limit the use of land near military bases.
Comer is specifically concerned about how the Biden administration used the REPI program to sell land to activist groups with apparent ties to the CCP, potentially creating a national security risk.
“[T]he Committee is examining the Biden-era Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program (REPI). Specifically, the Committee is investigating the Biden Administration’s use of REPI to facilitate the sale of land easements adjacent to military bases to nonprofits with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under the pretense of conservation,” Comer wrote in a letter sent Thursday to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
REPI agreements, known as easements, can be used for conservationist purposes to protect land around military bases. The Nature Conservancy, a global environmentalist organization, has several offices and dozens of staffers in China, having built up its presence there over the past 30 years, according to a Washington Examiner investigation. The director of its China program and other top executives previously worked for the Chinese government, and the director of the China program’s board doubles as a consultant for the CCP’s foreign influence arm.
“Additionally, employees of The Nature Conservancy’s China Program have held positions within the CCP, including roles at the Chinese People’s Political Consultive Conference, the United Front Working Department, China’s State Economic and Trade Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. In addition, these employees have contributed articles to the state-run publication People’s Daily,” Comer added.
Nature Conservancy controls roughly $10 billion of assets and has received millions worth of federal grant money over the course of its existence. Two other REPI organizations, mining company Rio Tinto and timber company Rayonier, are mentioned in Comer’s letter for having business in China or ties to CCP-affiliated organizations.
Comer’s letter cites two Government Accountability Office reports on the Pentagon’s failure to adequately assess foreign encroachment onto federal land, including spots near U.S. military installations. He is asking for a staff-level briefing from the Pentagon on the security vulnerabilities of REPI partnerships and strategies for mitigating them.
Conservatives have become increasingly alarmed about the national security risk posed by Chinese interests buying up U.S. farmland. Although China owns a small portion of total U.S. farmland, its total ownership increased 30 percent from 2019 to 2020, according to a 2021 U.S. Department of Agriculture report.
A 2023 investigation from the Wall Street Journal found that Chinese nationals attempted to access U.S. military bases over 100 times, raising worries about the possibility of espionage. Chinese entities own farmland near at least 19 military bases, potentially giving China the ability to conduct surveillance around them, the New York Post reported.
State and federal lawmakers have proposed legislation to combat China’s ability to buy U.S. land because of the national security risks it poses. The bipartisan consensus about China’s threat as a U.S. adversary led to the passage of the TikTok ban or divesture law last year, a proposal President Donald Trump has refused to enforce up to this point.
China’s foreign influence and infiltration efforts have extended into U.S. institutions on a broader level, from colleges and universities to the private sector and political offices. Comer previously investigated the CCP’s political warfare against the U.S. government and concluded that federal agencies under former President Joe Biden failed to develop comprehensive strategies for confronting it.