Administration November 1, 2007

Letter Voices Administration's Sudan Divestment Proposal Opposition

November 1, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The U.S. State Department has expressed the administration's opposition to a measure that would punish foreign and U.S. entities for investing in Sudan in a letter to two leading U.S. senators.
Reported by

The letter was sent to Democratic Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate Majority Leader, and Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky five days after the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act  was approved by the Senate Banking Committee and sent off for a full Senate vote, according to an Associated Press report. .

The letter, signed by Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey T. Bergner, warned that the measure would hurt President George W. Bush’s foreign policy efforts.

According to the news report,Bergner wrote that the act would impose unilateral measures targeted at U.S. allies and diplomatic partners and would shift focus away from (Sudan’s) behavior. That amounts to direct interference in the president’s foreign policy, the letter said.

The measure would also back efforts by states to divest Sudan investments from their pension and other portfolios, such as what has already happened in Florida (See FL Pension Fund to Divest $1.3B in Iran and Sudan-linked Companies ) and is still being bandied about in others (See  Will They or Won’t They? Questions Emerge on Ohio Divestiture).

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