Hearing Shows Bipartisan Support for Lee’s Darfur Divestment Bill
(Washington, DC) – Democratic and Republican lawmakers expressed support for federal divestment legislation introduced by Congresswoman Barbara Lee during a House committee hearing on the bill today.
“Many of us swore that another Rwanda would never again take place on our watch. But today Mr. Chairman it is happening again,” said Lee in her testimony to the committee. “We have to be about action—not just talk. We must use all the tools we have available to end this genocide. We’ve got to hit Khartoum where it hurts, in their pocketbooks.”
Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) as well as Congressmen Donald Payne (D-NJ) and Frank Wolf (R-VA) all testified in favor of the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act during a hearing today in the Domestic and International Monetary Policy Subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee.
Lee’s legislation, which has the bipartisan support of 83 cosponsors, would require the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to compile and publish a list of all companies listing securities on United States capital markets whose business is judged directly or indirectly support the genocide in Darfur and bans federal contracts for such companies.
Earlier this year, two international companies targeted by divestment campaigns because their business in Sudan is said to support the government-sponsored genocide in Darfur decided to withdraw their business from the country, due in large part to the introduction of federal divestment legislation.
Based on information from the GSA Procurement Data System, companies like Siemens AG, Alstom Power Inc., ABB Inc., Schlumberger Technology Corp. and Kuwait Petroleum Corp. who do business in Sudan received more than $600 million in federal contracts during fiscal years 2004-2006. There is no comprehensive list of companies whose business in Sudan is supporting the genocide, or which of them are receiving or have received federal contracts, a situation Lee’s legislation seeks to remedy.
“No one should have to worry that they are supporting genocide, whether it’s through their tax dollars or their pension fund,” said Lee. “This bill is designed to wash the blood off of our federal contracts, protect the rights of states to divest their own public pension funds from companies doing business in Sudan and increase the financial pressure on Khartoum to end the genocide in Darfur.”
Lee’s legislation also protects the right of states to divest public pension funds from such companies, a provision that was included in the House version of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, passed in April, but was removed from the Senate version of the bill after serious lobbying from the National Foreign Trade Council.
The bill also requires The Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report on all Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board investments in such companies. The Federal Thrift Savings Program holds approximately $186 billion in assets for more than 3.6 million current and former government employees.
Lee, who was arrested for protesting the genocide in front of the Sudanese embassy in Washington in June, 2006, has traveled twice to Darfur, first with Congressional colleagues and academy award nominated actor Don Cheadle in January, 2005 and most recently on a delegation led by Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi in February, 2006.
###