US Kansas Senate approves Sudan divestiture
March 15, 2007 (TOPEKA, Kan) — Senators approved a bill requiring the pension fund for retired teachers and state workers to end its investments in companies providing revenue to Sudan’s government.
The measure is designed to pressure Sudan into ending violence in its Darfur region. The Sudanese government has been blamed for atrocities in an ethnic conflict that has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million.
The 40-0 vote sent the bill to the House.
“It is important that state retirement dollars not support the terrible atrocities in that part of Africa,” said Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence.
The Kansas Public Employees Retirement System estimates that it has about $38 million of its $12 billion-plus in assets invested in companies with some ties to Sudan.
Under the bill, KPERS couldn’t invest in a company if it had “oil-related activities” in Sudan, provided revenue to its government, sold military equipment there or had a role in the genocide. The bill would make an exception for some dollars in “passively managed” funds in which money is mingled.
Numerous states have begun divesting their public pension funds from Sudan. The Kansas bill is modeled after legislation in California.
Other states, including Missouri, have divested their funds from Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria, which the U.S. Department of State has identified as terror-sponsoring nations. Several executive orders already restrict U.S. companies from trading or investing in Iran.
At Schmidt’s urging, senators amended the bill to require KPERS officials to compile a report by the start of the 2008 session showing how much money is invested in those four nations and what the effect would be of divesting.
Supporters of having KPERS divest from Sudan worried that the report on other nations would force the pension system to end other investments or would close foreign markets to Kansas products.
“We’re starting down a slippery slope. We’re setting a precedent with Sudan. This really could unravel KPERS,” said Sen. David Wysong, R-Mission Hills.
However, Schmidt said most Kansans would oppose the state investing pension funds in some of the same nations or regions of the world where their sons and daughters were fighting against terrorists. He said he wanted a report first so legislators can consider the effects on the pension fund.
“I just don’t quite see what the concern is here,” Schmidt said. “We ought to gather information first.”
Topeka activist Sonny Scroggins has been protesting the investment practices for several weeks with daily marches around the Statehouse. He first took the issue to the KPERS board last summer to encourage action.
He was pleased by the Senate’s action _ and Schmidt’s call for a study of divesting from the other nations.
“I think that was really thoughtful,” he said.
The bill was supported in a Senate subcommittee by students from Wichita East High School and the Sudan Divestiture Task Force, based in Washington, D.C.
(AP)