Legislation by State Sen. Andrew Jones (R-Centre) would limit which Chinese companies the Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA) can invest in.
The bill would enforce on RSA a prohibition placed on investment activities by certain presidential executive orders addressing an identified national emergency regarding the threat from securities investments that finance Communist Chinese military companies. The bill would prohibit the purchase or sale of any publicly traded securities to or from certain entities affiliated with Communist Chinese military companies by RSA.
The bill passed the Senate Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on February 12 but has yet to be put up for a full vote in the Senate.
Christopher Holton, a senior analyst and director for state outreach at the Center for Security Policy, told 1819 News in an interview that Senate leadership should give the bill a “fair hearing.”
“Give it a fair hearing. Let the representatives of the people vote on this legislation. It has been thoughtfully authored. It passed the Senate committee overwhelmingly, and it deserves a fair hearing on the floor of the Alabama Senate, and frankly, it undermines the whole process when a bill such as this goes through the process, goes through the hurdles and it is supposed to go through, and then it's just stymied um through some machination that's extra legislative, I would say,” Holton said.
RSA CEO David Bronner said in a letter to lawmakers last week, “Currently, RSA has zero direct investments in Chinese entities.”
“SB 69 and HB 504 set a concerning precedent for politicized investing–where decisions are made not by sound financial principles but by fluctuating political sentiment. Today the target is China; tomorrow, it could be any number of countries, industries, or companies. While we understand and appreciate the national security concerns that inspired this bill, RSA is already operating within a framework that respects those concerns without compromising financial performance,” he added in the letter.
Jones said the bill ensures that RSA follows federal law.
“We are out of committee and ready for the floor. We’re getting a little pushback from RSA because they invest in some exchange traded funds or ETFs that are invested in hundreds of different stocks in those ETFs. At the end of the day, this prohibited list includes Chinese military entities and entities that violate human rights in China. These are not just run-of-the-mill Chinese companies, these are bad actors and we do not need to have any money in the state of Alabama that’s going to support them through our investments. So, we want to make sure RSA is following federal law and divesting from any of those investments,” Jones said in a recent interview with 1819 News.
He continued, “All we want to do is them to ensure that they’re following federal law and not investing in anything that’s going to support violators of human rights or an aggressive military. Taiwan is under threat. We’ve seen the Chinese be aggressive in the South China Sea and other places. It’s a huge national security issue and our state needs to be doing it’s part to step up and back up the Trump administration on this.”
Alabama State Auditor Andrew Sorrell told 1819 News that lawmakers should take action on the bill.
“This is such a winning issue. You could poll Republicans or Democrats. All of us would agree that we don't need to be investing in the Communist Chinese Party companies. Think about the school teachers, the state employees, all their pension money. They don't want their money invested with a country that, but they would be outraged if they knew a single penny was invested in one of these entities,” Sorrell said.
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