Corporations targeted for doing business with the Sudanese government, which faces sanctions for its complicity in the Darfur genocide, gave more than $580,000 to congressional candidates during the 2006 cycle through the political action committees (PACs) of their U.S. subsidiaries, according to federal disclosures.
Sudan-linked PACs sent contributions to 13 House members who backed a plan by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) requiring public companies to reveal the nature of their ties to Sudan and barring them from federal contracts until the ties were severed. Eight of those House members, all Democrats, received contributions from Sudan-linked PACs within two weeks of signing on to Lee’s bill last year.
The timing and beneficiaries of the PAC contributions reveal the discordant reality of congressional fundraising, in which most lawmakers rely on professional fundraisers or campaign aides to field donations, often knowing little about the money’s origins. Several congressional offices were surprised when informed that five PACs of Sudan-linked multinational corporations were active in last year’s midterms, although at least two of the companies have since divested themselves from the regime of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
“This is something we should all be aware of,” said a senior aide to one of the lawmakers who unknowingly received contributions. “Any information we can get about companies and PACs that have an interest in Sudan would be good.”
Another aide to a lawmaker receiving one of the contributions said his boss had no idea that the PAC donation was linked to a corporation operating in Sudan but is relieved that the business has since divested. The office plans to secure a list of corporations still linked to the Bashir government to check future contributions.
The five PACs are registered to the U.S. offices of Siemens AG, ABB, Areva Group, Alcatel and Rolls-Royce, which allows corporations with international parents to donate to federal candidates. Siemens and ABB announced plans earlier this year to withdraw from Sudan, and Rolls-Royce relented to pressure from divestment advocates last week.
Nonetheless, the companies’ PACs were active givers during the fall of 2006, when Lee released her first Sudan divestment measure. Among those receiving donations from Siemens days or weeks within cosponsoring the divestment bill were Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Government Reform and Oversight Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.).
“Obviously, the contributions haven’t impacted the position of those members in terms of supporting divestment as a powerful tool to continue to increase the pressure on the Khartoum regime to end the genocide in Darfur,” Lee said through a spokesman.
Lee’s divestment legislation played a central role in Siemens’s and ABB’s pullouts from Sudan, her spokesman added.
Meredith McGehee, policy director at the Campaign Legal Center, said the giving patterns of the Sudan-linked PACs demonstrate that donations rarely are tracked to their sources, unless lawmakers are vigilant in the face of public scrutiny — as was the case with last year’s flurry of returned checks to Jack Abramoff.
“There is the notion that, ‘Hey, I can take your money but not have to agree with you,’” McGehee said. “But this money gives [the Sudan-linked corporations] a seat at the table. It’s not whether you buy a vote. This is whether or not you have access.”
The potential inconsistency of the PAC giving in light of lawmakers’ public support for Sudan divestment was not lost on Steven Weissman, associate director at the Campaign Finance Institute.
“It would seem hypocritical for them to say that states should divest from these companies, and at the same time they’re accepting contributions from these companies’ PACs,” Weissman said. “They have a responsibility to check into these contributions.”
The divestment push aims to choke the financial support that the Sudanese regime is believed to be providing to the “janjaweed” militias that have left a trail of destruction and murder through the Darfur region of western Sudan.
Hundreds of thousands have perished at the hands of the janjaweed in what the Bush administration has called a genocidal campaign.
One person familiar with the Lee bill said more awareness of the source of PAC contributions could prove beneficial: “It is crucial that divestment legislation move forward, and identifying these donations may be an opportunity for members to directly engage some of the companies doing business in Sudan.”
The Genocide Intervention Network (GIN), a leading participant in the effort, said the presence of 100 cosponsors on this year’s Lee divestment bill is worth hailing regardless of the PAC contributions that several of those members received.
“In terms of the mission of the divestment movement, this shows how important it is to be responsible as a fiscal citizen — be it on the state level, for your own individual investments, or even the money you receive from contributors,” GIN advocacy associate Allyson Neville said.
A Sudan researcher and analyst at Smith College, professor Eric Reeves, connected the PAC giving to K Street’s resistance to divestment rather than any attempt to influence lawmakers.
Corporate complicity in Darfur “doesn’t matter to a number of business interest groups,” Reeves said. “They want business as usual, no matter what the human costs. … It’s going to take a lot of nerve [for Congress] to oppose this legislation.”
The nonprofit Save Darfur Coalition is shedding new light on divestment this week through a massive grassroots lobbying campaign dubbed Global Days for Darfur. Activists will march on Wall Street to target Fidelity Investments, which has refused to divest its holdings of targeted Sudan-linked businesses, and hold a Washington event later this week.
John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator vying for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, also zeroed in on the Darfur crisis yesterday during remarks at the National Jewish Democratic Council.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) led a congressional delegation to Sudan during this month’s recess and yesterday launched a website dedicated to helping end the Darfur crisis. Hoyer added that the House would mark the Global Days event by taking up another Lee bill on Sudan, this one calling on the League of Arab States to take stronger action against the Khartoum regime.
Hoyer received $7,000 in contributions from three PACs during the 2006 season, while their parent corporations were still tied to Sudan, according to Federal Election Commission reports. |
