Bill to pull
California investments in
Iran passes Assembly
By Christy
Scott
The Alpine Sun
California lawmakers have taken the first step towards
preventing the state's pension plans from investing in companies
that do business in Iran. The bill, AB 221, authored by local
freshman assemblyman Joel Anderson, was approved by the Assembly
Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security Committee in a
4-1 vote. It would require the nation's two largest public pension
funds to divest from companies doing business in Iran.
“After Sept. 11, the United States government
instituted new steps to seize funding to terrorist groups. Why?
Because money is the mother’s milk of terrorism,” said Anderson
when he announced the bill in January. “Terrorists require money
to pay for safe harbors, training, logistical support, false
documentation, and of course weapons.”
"Who's funding terrorism? It sure shouldn't be our
public employees," Anderson said. "When you're looking at the war
on terrorists, this is one of the best weapons we have — just
defunding them."
Anderson said that California’s employee’s fund,
Calpers, and its teacher’s fund, Calstars, have an estimated $24
billion invested in more than 400 companies doing business with
Iran. Companies named by the congressman as being subject to the
investment ban included Deutsche Bank, DaimlerChrysler, Hyundai
Motor, and Total.
“We have a fiduciary responsibility to our public
employees to protect their retirements from risky investments like
these,” Anderson said.
The California Public Employees Retirement System has
an investment portfolio valued at $228 billion. The State Teachers
Retirement System investment portfolio is worth about $158
billion. The Service Employees International Union dropped its
opposition. But two teachers unions, the California Teachers
Association and the California Federation of Teachers, said
investment decisions should be made by the pension fund boards.
Anderson said his aim is to protect the pension funds
from risky investments that could be nationalized or damaged if
international tensions with Iran escalate into a conflict.
“At any point Iran could nationalize all those assets,”
Anderson said. “I cannot look a first responder, or any of our
employees, in the eye and say I thought it was a good idea that we
would have investments in Iran… I’m not saying that we should take
a foreign policy stance; I’m saying it’s not a good place to
invest our money.”
Anderson’s bill has gained bipartisan support in the
state.
“I am proud that as of this morning AB 221 has 17
co-authors, both Republicans and Democrats, including my colleague
Democratic Assembly Majority Whip Fiona Ma,” Anderson said at a
press conference. “In addition, over a dozen grass-roots
organizations from organized labor, taxpayer groups, to Jewish and
Iranian-American organizations support AB 221 and all are united
in their fight to squeeze terror-supporting Iran.”
“If we get world peace out of it, I’m for world peace,
and if we get human rights out of it, we get human rights,” he
said. “But I just want to be able to look at our taxpayers and say
I wasn’t asleep at the switch.”
The Bill now goes to the Assembly judiciary committee.
 E-mail
the Editor
|
|
