The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the following:

(a) On September 21, 2004, in addressing the United Nations General Assembly, President George W. Bush affirmed the Secretary of State’s finding and stated, “At this hour, the world is witnessing terrible suffering and horrible crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan, crimes my government has concluded are genocide.”

(b) The federal government has imposed sanctions against the Government of Sudan since 1997. These sanctions are monitored through the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

(c) Since 1993, the United States Secretary of State has determined Sudan is a country whose government has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism, thereby restricting United States assistance, defense exports and sales, and financial and other transactions with the Government of Sudan.

(d) On December 31, 2007, President George W. Bush signed the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act (Public Law 110-174). The legislation passed the Senate and the House of Representatives unanimously. That act authorizes state and local governments to adopt policies to divest from, and prohibit, contracts with problematic companies operating in Sudan’s oil, power, mineral, and military sectors. That act also prohibits the federal government from contracting with these companies.

(e) On September 25, 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stated, “Divesting will show our defiance of a government that murders” when signing Assembly Bill 2941 into law enabling the nation’s two largest pension funds to divest from investments in Sudan.

(Added by Stats. 2008, Ch. 272, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2009. Note: Section 10480 suggests conditions for future repeal action.)