House Passes Lee Darfur Divestment Bill
(Washington, DC) – Today, by a veto-proof measure of 418-1, the House passed legislation introduced by Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) that would strengthen states rights to divest from international companies whose business in Sudan supports the genocide in Darfur and bar such companies from receiving tax payer funded federal contracts.
“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.”
“I am proud of our bipartisan efforts to increase the financial pressure on Khartoum to end the genocide in Darfur, and I want the President to explain why he believes that Americans should not take steps to make sure that our tax dollars and our pension funds are not supporting genocide,” Lee added in response to news that President Bush had indicated he would veto the measure.
Lee’s legislation, which has the bipartisan support of 119 co-sponsors, would bar international companies whose business in Sudan directly or indirectly supports the genocide in Darfur from receiving tax-payer funded federal contracts and would require the Treasury Department to compile and publish a list of such companies.
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 legislation also provides a Safe Harbor for mutual funds and pensions, allowing them to divest from companies doing business in Sudan without fear of lawsuits, and includes a sunset clause tied to a certification by the President that the genocide has ended and to removal of all U.S. sanctions on Sudan.
Earlier this year, two international companies, ABB Inc. and Siemens AG – 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.
A recent report prepared by the Sudan Divestment Taskforce based on federal procurement data found that in FY06, companies whose business is judged to support the genocide received more than $1 billion in federal contracts. 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.
Lee, who was arrested for protesting the genocide in front of the Sudanese embassy in Washington in June, 2006, has traveled three times to Darfur, first with Congressional colleagues and academy award nominated actor Don Cheadle in January, 2005; on a delegation led by then-Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi in February, 2006; and on a delegation led by Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer in April, 2007.
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