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12:20I want to thank everybody for being here, for a huge announcement.
12:21This is something that the people of Texas wanted, the people of America want to see this take place.
12:28And what I will be announcing is possible, because we had great leadership by the Lieutenant Governor Patrick, by Speaker Burroughs, as well as you can see that this is of all the different signing events that we've ever had in this room this is by far the most populous.
12:37But as you can see, this is, of all the different signing events we've ever had in this room,
12:41this is by far the most populous or one of the most popular items.
12:47And so I want to thank everybody who voted for this in the House and the Senate.
12:53This is very simple.
12:54Hostile foreign adversaries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea,
12:59as well as foreign terrorist organizations like Trinidad, Uruguay, must not be allowed to own land in Texas, period.
13:14They should not be allowed access to our critical infrastructure, and they may not be allowed to exploit our border.
13:22And Texans should not have to compete against foreign adversaries when it comes to buying Texas land.
13:34One of the bills I'm going to sign is SB 17.
13:38It's the strongest law in the United States to prohibit foreign adversaries from buying land in our great state.
13:51Serious penalty.
13:52I'll also be signing Senate Bill 1349 that creates a criminal offense for transnational repression and intimidation.
14:07And signing House Bill 128 that prohibits sister city agreements with foreign adversaries.
14:14Once again, I want to thank Lieutenant Governor Patrick, Speaker Burroughs, as well as the sponsors for these bills today.
14:20Senators Colchorst and Hughes, Representatives Hefner, Orr, and Jenny Lopez.
14:26Yes.
14:33Yes.
14:33No.
14:35Yes.
14:36No.
15:38Now, Speaker Burroughs.
15:47Government's core function is to protect and defend its citizens and its sovereignty.
15:52It has always been the case that it is one of the most important functions it is.
15:56As we look around the world and we see the rising threat of these global threats, whether
16:01it's terrorists or other countries that are hostile to us, it is important that Texas
16:07and Texans step up to protect and make the investment in taking care of us and our infrastructure.
16:14These bills today represent what we do.
16:17These bills today are the culmination of years of work of the members at this table, and
16:22the governor signing them into law is the commitment to do what is important in protecting us against
16:28hostile foreign adversaries.
16:30I want to thank Chairman Hefner, Representative Lopez and Orr in the House for carrying these
16:37important pieces of legislation, Senator Kolkhorst, who's worked on this for multiple sessions
16:42to get this across the finish line, and Senator Hughes, and, of course, the Lieutenant Governor.
16:47Working together, we were able to achieve historic victories for Texas and making sure everyone
16:52knows, Texas is not for sale.
17:02Now, Senator Kolkhorst.
17:04Thank you, Governor.
17:05What a great day.
17:06What a great day for Texas and our nation.
17:09This is, these series of bills are so very important, and I want to speak to something
17:15that is Senate Bill 17.
17:17Governor, you were the first.
17:19I believe it was two days before your inauguration in 2023, you tweeted about Senate Bill 147.
17:25Get this bill to my desk, and I'll sign it.
17:27And that started a lot, if you will.
17:32It was quite a journey.
17:33And I want to thank Speaker Burroughs, and I certainly want to give a shout-out to my friend
17:37and colleague, Cole Hefner, Chairman Hefner, you were a trooper.
17:42And I want to say this, that as this bill moved through the process, and, Speaker, thank
17:47you, I'm grateful to the Lieutenant Governor for giving it a priority number, as well
17:51as the Speaker.
17:52But these members behind us made this bill better along the way, every step of the way,
17:58with amendments, with input.
18:00And we came out, Governor, as you said, with the strongest bill in the nation.
18:04We have 15 military installations in the state of Texas.
18:09We're rich in farmland, in water, natural resources like oil and gas, timber, rare earth materials.
18:17And what we have said with Senate Bill 17 is, if you're a hostile foreign nation, you're not
18:23going to own it.
18:23Don't mess with Texas.
18:26And so I will just end it with this.
18:28General Patton said about national security, he said, a pint of sweat saves a gallon of
18:35blood.
18:36And I believe that that is what we've done with all three of these bills.
18:39I'm so grateful.
18:40Thank you, Governor Abbott, for being there all the way through and for making this get
18:45to the finish line, because it really was your determination, your push through.
18:53All right.
18:54With that, we'll take a few questions.
18:58I'm wondering if you could just talk about the journey.
19:01I remember about two years ago, there was a CCP campaign to try and kill your bill.
19:07And one of my sources, I found that you and the governor were on a darknet CCP website.
19:14And so we reached out and worked through all of some repercussions from that.
19:20I'm just wondering if you could talk about the challenges that you overcame.
19:23And have you ever had any kind of fierce opposition to a bill like that?
19:28Well, it certainly was a lot.
19:30And you brought some things to the light.
19:31And Governor Abbott was there from the beginning with that tweet.
19:34And then he would call me.
19:35We would talk through strategies.
19:37We got the bill out of the Senate.
19:38And it didn't catch traction in the House.
19:43But you know what?
19:45Representative Hefner, Chair Hefner, called me in the interim.
19:48And he was chairing a committee.
19:50And he said, hey, you're right about all of this.
19:52And some of the reporting that some of you did that had investigative reporting was important.
19:57I want to thank some of the folks over here that testified for this bill and bringing it to the forefront.
20:02And then the members behind us who went back to their districts and they started looking around.
20:07And it was real.
20:08And I will say, Governor Patrick as well, but Governor Abbott, you were strong.
20:13And it was hard.
20:15I've rarely seen that many protests, I mean, organized protests against a bill, starting with Senate Bill 147 all the way through Senate Bill 17, House Bill 17.
20:25And then billboards and commercials and, like you said, the social media.
20:32So there were a lot of brave people that came and testified for the bill that risked a lot, and some of those having formerly been from the country of China.
20:41And they stood up for what was right in making Texas and our nation.
20:45This is a national security bill.
20:47Well, if you signed the critical infrastructure bill, the bill is here today, what else is there left to do?
20:58To sign?
20:59Oh, we've got a whole lot more to do.
21:02Well, in regards to protecting Texas land, is there anything else that needs to be done?
21:06Listen, we will never relent when it comes to protecting Texas land.
21:10We'll turn over every stone to make sure we take every step needed to make sure we safeguard our land.
21:14And this obviously is the strongest bill in the entire nation, but we've got to wait and see how it's implemented to make sure that it lives up to the way that it's structured.
21:22If there's any shortcoming in it, we'll make sure we stiffen it.
21:26Talking about the trend of Aragua, how you are preventing these people coming to this country and get, like, these alerts when this is happening?
21:35So I'll say this, and I'll let you guys answer it also.
21:39But the trend of Aragua situation is one that we specifically wanted inserted because, among other things, this also prevents the leasing of property.
21:48And what we found with trend of Aragua, what they like to do is to come to states in the United States, lease out property, use it for human trafficking purposes.
21:56And this gives me authority to not just declare them a foreign terrorist organization, but anybody else that sets up operations like that.
22:04They will fall under this law, and we will be able to prosecute them and put them in jail where they belong.
22:10Governor Abbey, you added two items to special session yesterday, one of them about making sure that St. David's registration is prohibited in the state of Texas.
22:19Can you talk about how that came about?
22:21Sure.
22:22It surfaced over the course of this week, and it surfaced, I think it was Valerie Swanson.
22:28Is she here?
22:29Didn't you bring it up?
22:30Yes.
22:30So Valerie Swanson brought it up and found out something that I was unaware of, and that is that there was the possibility, I think, in some legislation that passed during the regular session, right,
22:40that led to election day registration of voting, same-day voting, same-day registration.
22:48And that's something that we don't want in Texas because it opens the door to potential cheating.
22:54And that's why I put it on the call, and that's why I think it will be signing a law on it.
22:58Two more questions, Governor.
23:00I think the question everyone wants to know here is what has to pass in order to avoid a third session?
23:07Well, so I hear that you're thinking about running for one of these new seats.
23:11Yeah, so until I see a district that's carved out for you, the session will not end.
23:24Can you see yourself calling in a third special session over Texas House of the District?
23:41So what I've seen so far is tremendous progress being made on all the items that I put on the call,
23:46and I won't talk about anything else until I see what happens with this call.
23:49Thanks, guys.
23:50Thank you very much.
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