US Senate backs divestment efforts against Sudan govt
October 17, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — The Senate Banking Committee unanimously approved legislation Wednesday endorsing some state and local governments’ efforts to use their investments to pressure Sudanese government to ease suffering in its Darfur region
The bill quickly moved forward on a 21-0 vote after Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., withdrew a proposed amendment that would have empowered President Bush to override decisions by the local governments.
“I don’t think we want to give local governments authority in foreign policy decisions,” Hagel said. But he said he was stepping aside to back the bipartisan measure already approved in July by the House.
Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, said the aim was to ease “grinding misery” in Darfur.
Since 2005, 20 states and more than 50 universities have protested the violence by adopting policies of divesting funds from companies that invest in Sudan. Typically, this includes legislation to block state pension funds from investing in foreign companies that provide revenue for the government of Sudan. But the tactic has sparked legal battles, with opponents arguing the states are trying to conduct their own foreign affairs in violation of the Constitution.
The legislation would authorize such divestment as within investors’ rights, so long as the states follow certain standards and notify the Treasury Department of their actions.
More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in four years of violence in the Darfur region since ethnic African rebels took up arms against militia supported by the Arab-dominated central government.
Bush has called the violence genocide, but the State Department at a committee hearing two weeks ago asked Congress to defer action, saying it would send the wrong message to the Sudanese government “at a time when it is actually being helpful with peace talks.”
The bill also would prohibit the U.S. government from awarding contracts to companies directly investing or conducting business operations in Sudan in four sectors: oil industry, power production, mineral extraction and military equipment.
The House passed a similar bill July 31 by a 418-1 vote.
(AP)