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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Dan Frankel |
  
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Frankel-backed bill to divest from Iran, Sudan passes House
HARRISBURG, June 25 – State Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny, strongly advocated for a bill the House passed today that would require the state treasurer and state pension funds to withdraw investments from foreign companies doing substantial business in Iran or Sudan.
"We can have influence and change the behavior of rogue states, and we can make sure that Pennsylvania taxpayer money is not used to prop up either of these regimes," Frankel said. "Several other states have taken similar action, and Pennsylvania has done this in the past in response to outrages like the racist apartheid system that was once in effect in South Africa.
"Many Holocaust survivors have told me they want part of their legacy to be that the Holocaust should never be forgotten, but also that it should never happen again. The United States has tragically fallen short of that ideal in the past, in coming to the aid of Holocaust victims far too late in light of what our government knew and when it knew it. To give a more recent example, we failed in Rwanda in the 1990s, and in the present, the world community has been slow to respond to the Darfur genocide in Sudan. We cannot change the past, but we have a moral imperative to use our influence in Darfur. Pennsylvania has the opportunity to make a difference as part of a larger community of state and local governments that are divesting from companies with ties to Sudan," Frankel said.
"Iran presents another case where we can and must use our influence. There has been much discussion of possible military intervention to change the behavior of the Iranian government. In light of the situation in Iraq, we should first take every non-military step we can with regard to Iran," he said.
"We can and must learn lessons from the past. I hope the state Senate will soon see the light."
The bill (H.B. 1086) would require the state treasurer, the State Employees' Retirement System and the Public School Employees' Retirement System to use publicly available information to identify whether they have money invested in any foreign companies doing substantial business in Iran or Sudan. The treasurer and the funds would be required to send written notices to such companies and to divest holdings in those companies after 90 days if the companies persisted in doing business in either country.
Frankel also supports a Sudan divestment bill that passed the House 194-3 last July. That bill (H.B. 1140) features an approach called the targeted divestment model, which calls for the withholding of Pennsylvania's pension fund investments from companies that are directly or indirectly helping the Sudanese government perpetuate genocide. That legislation remains in the Senate Finance Committee.
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Frankel also supports the social investment strategy announced by state Treasurer Robin Wiessmann in January, which would address many of these concerns. However, the bill the House passed today would be binding on future treasurers until the federal government changes its negative designations of Iran and Sudan, for example, by removing Iran from the list of state sponsors of terrorism or revoking all sanctions imposed against the Sudanese government.
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