[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 195 (Wednesday, December 19, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2642-E2643]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            SUDAN ACCOUNTABILITY AND DIVESTMENT ACT OF 2007

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. SPENCER BACHUS

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 18, 2007

  Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this 
legislation, and urge its immediate passage. We are voting on language 
very similar to legislation that passed the House 418-1 at the end of 
July, which supports the decision of state and local legislators and 
fund managers to divest from companies doing business in Sudan. 
However, the bill before us today does not require the government to 
create or be the source of a ``black list'' of such companies. For that 
reason, the Senate version is much more acceptable to the 
Administration.
  Some have said that today's legislation is too little, too late. This 
certainly may not be the case for more than a million innocent men, 
women, and children who have somehow survived the genocide and 
slaughter. We can't rewrite history or save lives already lost in 
Darfur. However, we can and must resolve to do better going forward. 
This legislation has the potential to give hundreds of thousands of

[[Page E2643]]

peaceful and unarmed men, women, and children in Darfur an increased 
chance of surviving the genocide.
  Economic and financial considerations have been used to both block 
and water down our Sudan capital markets legislation in the past. 
Economic and financial considerations are important, but in a loving 
nation can never be used as justification for turning a blind eye to 
genocide. Closing our financial markets to those who participate 
directly or indirectly in the slaughter of innocent human beings is 
well within our ability and ought to be a bedrock principle. America is 
a loving nation, and allowing our financial markets to be utilized by 
an evil regime which conducts religious and racial genocide is 
inconsistent with our values and principles.
  Mr. Speaker, this legislation will help put strong pressure on a 
government that has consistently engaged in genocidal actions, both 
directly and as an enabler of paramilitary factions that are harassing 
and killing people in the Darfur region and elsewhere in Sudan.
  It is vital to keep the pressure on the Khartoum government, both 
because of the ``bait-and-switch'' game it has been playing with the 
rest of the world for years, pretending to make strides to end the 
genocide and then going back on its word when the world's outrage is 
temporarily spent. The latest outrage involves refusing to allow the 
deployment of non-African United Nations peacekeeping troops, due in 
two weeks, which it previously had agreed to accept.
  The objective of this legislation is one that I wholeheartedly 
embrace, and that I have sought to achieve in legislative proposals of 
my own in previous Congresses. Passage will be a strong expression of 
Congress's outrage over the continued genocide in Darfur. I urge its 
immediate passage.
  I want to thank the staff that worked on this important effort. From 
Chairman Frank's staff, Jim Segel, Scott Morris, Daniel McGlinchey and 
Nancy Alexander; from Representative Barbara Lee's staff, Chrisos 
Isentas; from Representative Donald Payne's staff, Noelle Lusane; from 
Representative Ileana Ros--Lehtinen's staff, Gene Gurevida and Yleen 
Poblette; from Representative Frank Wolf's staff, Molly Miller; from 
Representative Christopher Smith's staff, Sherry Rickert; and Joe 
Pinder, Kevin Edgar, and Anthony Cimino from my own staff.

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