HB 283 Kentucky House · 2026 Regular Session

AN ACT relating to adversarial foreign transactions in the Commonwealth.

Summary
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 39G to define "center," "executive director," "foreign enterprise," and "resident of the Commonwealth"; prohibit a resident of the Commonwealth from engaging in a transaction with a foreign enterprise if the transaction would result in foreign control of intellectual property, infrastructure, technology, or assets critical to the economic security of the Commonwealth, obstruction of counter-intelligence efforts, or would compromise the economic security of the Commonwealth; require the Kentucky Intelligence Fusion Center to review and investigate a transaction between a foreign enterprise and a resident of the Commonwealth; require the center to notify the executive director of the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security once it has determined that a transaction would compromise the economic security of the Commonwealth; require the center to refer the matter to the appropriate federal authorities if a transaction would compromise the security of the United States; allow the center to contact other state and local agencies and access state and local databases if necessary in pursuit of a review or an investigation; require the center to assess whether the transaction between a foreign enterprise and a resident of the Commonwealth would pose a threat to the security of the Commonwealth, the level of threat the transaction would pose, whether that threat has been mitigated, whether the transaction is with or on behalf of a foreign government, and whether a foreign entity may obtain control of critical infrastructure, technology, or assets critical to the economic security of the Commonwealth; require the center to refer the matter to the Attorney General and notify the executive director of the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security if it determines that the transaction would pose as a threat to the Commonwealth and the threat cannot be mitigated; require the center to meet with the co-chairs of the Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee at least twice a year to discuss any findings in its review or investigations that would compromise the economic security of the Commonwealth; allow either co-chair of the Legislative Investigations and Oversight Committee to compel additional meetings; require the co-chairs of the Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee to have required security clearance before meeting with the center; prohibit the center from meeting with the co-chairs if neither have obtained the required security clearance; exempt the meeting between the center and the co-chairs of the Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee from the Kentucky Open Meetings Act and exempt any records produced in the meeting from the Kentucky Open Records Act; require center to submit an annual report to the Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee; exempt certain data from the report from the Kentucky Open Records Act; exempt certain data from the report from the Kentucky Open Meetings Act; direct that the first report to the Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee be issued by July 1, 2027.
Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Mar 2026
House Passage
Mar 2026
Senate Passage
Governor
Introduced Jan 9, 2026 Last action Apr 1, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced Current/Final · 5 edits
MODERATE
The bill was significantly rewritten to shift its focus from general foreign transactions to specifically targeting 'adversarial' foreign entities. This change narrows the scope to prevent threats from specific foreign governments listed in federal regulations rather than any foreign entity. The new version adds stricter security clearance requirements for legislative oversight and expands the Center's authority to access state databases for reviews.
Scope change
The bill's scope changed from regulating transactions with any foreign entity to specifically regulating transactions with 'foreign adversaries' defined as governments of proscribed countries.
DEFINITION

The definition of 'foreign enterprise' was replaced with 'foreign adversary,' which specifically refers to the government of any proscribed country listed in federal regulations.

REQUIREMENT

The bill now requires the Intelligence Fusion Center to assess whether a transaction was conducted on behalf of a foreign adversary or poses a threat to economic security.

New provisions mandate that legislative committee co-chairs must possess secret security clearance to meet with the Center, and meetings are exempt from public open meeting laws.

The Center is granted new authority to access state or locally owned databases if necessary to complete a review of a transaction.

ENFORCEMENT

The enforcement mechanism now explicitly allows the Attorney General to investigate violations and bring legal actions against those who engage in prohibited adversarial transactions.

Floor votes · House Mar 25, 2026

How they voted

980
Passed · 7 other
Total votes 105
Mar 25, 2026
D Democratic21
20 Yea 1
95% Yea
R Republican84
78 Yea 6
92% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
20
Key actions
2
Committee
5
Amendments
1
Mar 31, 2026
Committee
to Economic Development, Tourism, & Labor (S)
upper
Mar 26, 2026
Committee
to Committee on Committees (S)
upper
Mar 25, 2026
Lower · Passed
3rd reading, passed 93-0 with Committee Substitute (1) and Committee Amendment (1-title)
lower
Mar 20, 2026
Introduced
floor amendment (1) filed to Committee Substitute
lower
Mar 20, 2026
Lower · Passed
reported favorably, 2nd reading, to Rules with Committee Substitute (1) and Committee Amendment (1-title)
lower
Jan 16, 2026
Committee
to Judiciary (H)
lower
Jan 9, 2026
Committee
to Committee on Committees (H)
lower
Jan 9, 2026
Introduced
introduced in House
lower
0 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

No sponsor information available.