Legislature(2009 - 2010)BUTROVICH 205
04/02/2009 04:00 PM Senate WORLD TRADE, TECH, INNOVATIONS
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB37 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | SB 37 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SB 37-DIVEST INVESTMENTS IN SUDAN
4:08:14 PM
CHAIR MCGUIRE announced the consideration of SB 37.
SENATOR FRENCH, Sponsor of SB 37, said the idea of the bill,
which is stop investing in Sudan, is simple, but making it
happen takes complex maneuvers. He read the following sponsor
statement into the record:
Government supported genocide has killed hundreds of
thousands of people and displaced approximately 2.5
million residents from the Darfur region of Sudan.
This legislation will enact a targeted divestment
program that prevents the state of Alaska from
investing permanent fund and retirement plan dollars
in companies that directly finance genocide in Darfur.
SB 37 gives Alaska the opportunity to join the states,
businesses and educational institutions that refuse to
fund such atrocities.
Targeted divestment is a proven tactic to reduce the
viability of genocide in Darfur. Twenty seven other
states have divested from businesses that operate in
the region. The cost to these states has been
negligible. Institutions have found no noticeable
decrease in returns when divestment only targets
companies that have explicit financial links to the
conflict. Holdings in these companies amount to seven
investments valued at less than 0.1 percent of all
Permanent fund assets, showing that the implementation
of this legislation will not require a major shift in
investment strategy.
Results from the divestment movement have been
promising. Sudan, unlike many foreign governments that
sponsor genocide, has responded favorably when
threatened with economic sanctions. Partly as a result
of the divestment movement, the Sudanese government
purchased a six-page, $1 million advertisement in the
New York Times that sought out foreign direct
investment. As more companies pull out of the region
or encourage the government of Sudan to halt violent
acts, the end of genocide is highly probable.
Ignoring genocide has left several scars on recent
American history. With the cost of action so small,
Alaska has no excuse to sit on the sidelines.
CHAIR MCGUIRE asked Commissioner Galvin to provide information
on the Governor's bill, SB 81, which has a similar goal.
4:11:42 PM
PATRICK GALVIN, Commissioner, Department of Revenue, said he is
speaking in favor of the concept of SB 37 and SB 81. The common
purpose is to effectuate divestiture of state funds from
companies that do business with the government of Sudan. This is
an effort to join the growing chorus to oppose the activity in
the Darfur region of Sudan and to acknowledge that it is an
unprecedented situation to have activities recognized as
genocide as they are happening. It is a moral imperative to act
on these activities and one way to do so is divestiture.
COMMISSIONER GALVIN said he testified on a similar bill last
year stating support for divestiture. However, the
administration had some issues with that bill just as it has
issues with the current bill. He said it is his belief that
those issues can be resolved as the bill moves forward. "We are
here to support the bill, support moving the bill through and
support ultimately the passage of the amended version of the
bill," he said.
When the administration looked at what the Department of
Revenue, the Alaska Retirement Management (ARM) board, and the
Alaska Permanent Fund board of Trustees can do on their own
account to effectuate divestiture, they found that because of
state statute and the restrictions on investment decision-making
of each of the bodies they do not have the authority to
effectuate a divestiture policy. For that reason, this
legislation is not just appropriate, it is needed.
The administration's goal, which ultimately became the
Governor's bill, was to achieve divestiture of the state funds
at a minimum cost to the state. That cost is not so much the
loss of investment revenue, but the mechanism of implementing
the divestment policy. Each state entity that is affected by
this legislation utilizes certain investment policies that do
not lend themselves to having a divestment policy because these
state entities do not have direct control of the investments and
thus cannot dictate the terms. To actually fulfill the purpose
of this legislation the state would have to divest from all such
funds even though they may have nothing to do with companies
dealing with Sudan.
The legislation that the administration would like to go forward
would be structured to put the burden of compliance on the
accountants who actually insure that the investments are meeting
the standards and rules that are established for each of the
investment accounts. These folks do this every day so it
wouldn't add additional cost, it would simply be an additional
standard they would look at in their routine activities.
COMMISSIONER GALVIN noted that the ARM Board and the Alaska
Permanent Fund Board of Trustees recently passed resolutions
supporting the divestment legislation that the Governor put
forward because it minimizes costs and unintended consequences.
4:18:04 PM
SENATOR STEVENS asked if other state funds, like the
Constitutional Budget Reserve (CBR), are included.
COMMISSIONER GALVIN replied the CBR and the statutory budget
reserve fall under his fiduciary responsibility as commissioner
and they would be covered by the bill. However, because of
existing restrictions it's not likely that the investments in
either of those funds would be implicated.
DAVID ALEXANDER, Nine Star Education and Employment Services,
Anchorage, said the board of directors has concern with the bill
because they serve the Sudanese community in Anchorage and work
with Sudanese Alaskan residents to help them find work, housing
and other services.
BAJEK DENG, South Sudanese Community in Anchorage, said he left
Sudan because the president authorized killing of a lot of
people in his village. He is not a good president and has been
killing people since 1980. He thanked the committee for letting
him tell about the genocide. Money should be used in a good way,
he said.
4:22:49 PM
TOR GACH, South Sudanese Community in Anchorage, said he came to
the U.S. 15 years ago and has lived in Alaska 3.5 years. He
supports SB 37 because he doesn't support the genocide in Sudan.
The government is not good; it has killed 2.9 million southern
Sudanese people, not including those in Darfur. It's a good idea
to withdraw Alaska money from investments in Sudan. He thanked
the committee for supporting the bill.
4:24:50 PM
ELISE BOYER, Juneau Jewish Community at Congregation Sukkat
Shalom, said the board unanimously passed a resolution to
support divestment in whatever way it may come about. She stated
the following:
Due to the overwhelming dread and destruction suffered
by the Jewish community during the Holocaust, we as a
current community are painfully aware of how urgent
the need is to do what we can to stop this genocide.
The decision on how best to do that will obviously
take place far away from this room, but what we do
have the power to do is to stop funding it and to stop
profiting from companies who fund it. So we're asking
that this committee act favorably and quickly to move
the bill along.
When we teach our children about World War II and
about the Holocaust, we make them a promise, and every
Jewish family uses the same words. We say 'Never
again.' And by taking favorable action on this today
we can take a step forward to making that promise come
true - at least for the people in Sudan and Darfur.
STUART COHEN, representing himself, Juneau, said most people
know in general what's going on in Sudan. Gorillas from the
south have been working against the government in the north. The
northern government's response has been to unleash militias to
destroy women and children in southern Sudan. This isn't new.
Alaska is involved because it has a stake in the winner, he
said. The argument against divestment is that the permanent fund
is designed to make money. But when the mandate to make money is
mixed with morality things get complicated because everyone
potentially has a cause. The permanent fund wasn't set up to
arbitrate such things, but that's almost always the logic behind
genocide. The mind-boggling crimes against humanity are never
done by a few evil people. They're always done by decent people
doing their part to make it happen. It's the policeman who
knocks on your door, the title insurer who transfers title of
confiscated property, the banker who transfers money, the
chemist who makes the nerve gas, the train driver who drives the
train full of people to concentration camps, and the business
folks who invest in the businesses of the people who are running
the country. Evil pretty much takes control of the things that
decent people value such as jobs, churches, schools, politics,
and business. When this happens all the people have a stake in
its success. Right now and as long as the permanent fund is
invested in Sudan, Alaskans have a stake in the destruction of
the people in southern Sudan. I can accept a smaller permanent
fund check, he said.
4:29:09 PM
JOYANNE BLOOM, representing herself, Juneau, thanked the
committee for hearing the bill and urged its speedy passage.
Time is critical. She related that she is a member of Save
Darfur and a past member of the board of directors of the
American Jewish World Service. The latter helped start the Save
Darfur movement here in this country. The current president,
Ruth Messinger, was in the White House this week to meet with
President Obama and his newly appointed envoy to Sudan, General
J. Scott Gration.
General Gration left for Sudan on Tuesday to negotiate an end to
the crisis and restore international aid to the people of
Darfur. She noted that after the International Criminal Court
put out a warrant for the arrest of President al-Bashir, he
retaliated by expelling the thirteen international aid
organizations that were providing food, water, and medicine for
the displaced people of Darfur.
MS. BLOOM continued:
So how do we connect the dots from Washington D.C.?
What's happening this week in Sudan and here in Alaska
and especially here today in your committee room? I
think that you're all negotiators. I think that
probably the definition of a legislator is that you're
a negotiator. You get it; you understand that the more
clout you have, the better you are able to negotiate.
So we want to give General Gration all the clout we
can when he's over there. He needs to demonstrate that
state by state we Americans won't allow genocide. So
far, as your sponsor said, 27 states have drawn the
line and they have divested in companies directly
doing business in Sudan.
We need you here today, here and now, to fill in those
dots with a bold black firm marker that says we as
Alaskans, and this is underscored, we want to also
draw the line against genocide.
4:32:31 PM
REBECCA WORL, South Sudanese Community of Anchorage, said she is
running from war. She doesn't know where her parents are. The
way they treated her is no way to treat a person.
DANIEL W. GATKUOTH, South Sudanese Community of Anchorage, said
the war in Sudan has been going on for longer than the 20 some
years he's been alive. He came to Alaska with his family and he
would like to have the bill signed to help with the problems in
Sudan.
4:36:18 PM
KHAK BOTH, South Sudanese Community of Anchorage, said Alaska
money invested in Sudan is not a good thing. Southern Sudanese
don't benefit from the oil in the south; it's used to support
militias and to kill Darfurians. He asked the committee to pull
money out of Sudan and put it in the south.
4:39:47 PM
RICKY TAGABAN, representing himself, Juneau, said when he was in
his junior year in high school he had the honor of welcoming two
refugees from Sudan to speak at his school. His task was to
deliver the welcome in Tlingit and he decided to relate the
origin of the Tlingit national anthem to their story as
refugees. A line in the anthem says "So it may never be
forgotten, our voices will be heard on our grandfather's land."
It may not be in this lifetime, but Dinka [group of tribes of
south Sudan] voices will be heard on Dinka land. He prays and
hopes that in this lifetime these people are empowered to take
back their lives and their country. We can do this one thing
that says that we don't accept what's going on. "Part of holding
each other up is holding each other accountable," Mr. Tagaban
said.
DOBUOL DENG, Southern Sudanese Community of Anchorage, said what
is happening in Darfur is another holocaust and he believes that
99 percent of the Sudanese that live in Alaska support this
bill. The community was relieved when the international court
issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan as-
Bashir. Mr. Deng appealed to the people of Alaska to join in the
divestment.
4:44:30 PM
DICHINE RIEK, Southern Sudanese Community of Anchorage, said she
came to the U.S. 15 years ago from Southern Sudan. There were
lots of problems coming from northern Sudan, but they don't know
where people in the north got the money to buy the guns to kill
the people in the south. Now lots of people from southern Sudan
are in the U.S. as refugees. Pull the money out of the north,
she said.
PAULIET DENG, South Sudanese Community of Anchorage, said the
problems in Darfur are the same as in Southern Sudan. The
community is glad the money will be pulled from the program
because it makes problems in Sudan.
PAL CHUOL, South Sudanese Community of Anchorage, said he came
to the U.S. from Sudan 10 years ago. There's been genocide in
Sudan for many years and the people have suffered. What is
happening in Darfur has happened in southern Sudan. It would be
good to sign the bill and help stop the killing of women and
children and the looting.
4:51:19 PM
CHAIR MCGUIRE closed public testimony.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI moved to report SB 37 from committee with
individual recommendations and attached fiscal note(s).
SENATOR STEVENS noted that North Korea is another place where
the state shouldn't be investing and asked the commissioner if
other countries should be added to the list.
COMMISSIONER GALVIN said no; what is happening in Darfur is not
similar to what may be happening in countries like North Korea
or Iran. The issue of government-sponsored genocide is unique to
the situation in Darfur. There is a bright line that says that
it is morally separate than other potential considerations that
interest groups may want to see addressed through investment
policy.
CHAIR MCGUIRE said she understands that he will offer changes in
the next committee. She appreciates Senator Steven's question
but believes is possible to draw a bright line around
government-sponsored genocide. I'd like to do more, but this is
what we can do now, she said. Perhaps this is a chance to set a
precedent about what we expect in our world, she added.
CHAIR MCGUIRE, finding no further discussion and no objection to
the motion, announced that SB 37 is moved from committee.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| SUDAN PACKET.pdf |
SWTI 4/2/2009 4:00:00 PM |