SPRINGFIELD — — The Illinois House on Wednesday passed a bill to ban state investment in assets tied to Russia and Belarus in retaliation for their involvement in the war in Ukraine.
House Bill 1293by Rep. Lindsey LaPointe, D-Chicago, urges the five state pension systems to divest themselves of their stakes in companies domiciled in either of these countries as well as their sovereign debt, and their prohibited from making new investments.
“We can’t sit and wait for the war in Ukraine to be over,” LaPointe said during the House debate. “We in Illinois need to do everything we can … to make sure we do our part to call out Russia and end this war.”
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and occasionally used Belarus, with the permission of that government, as a staging point for incursions from the north.
As of November 7, the war had claimed an estimated 6,490 civilian deaths, and another 9,972 civilians injured, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Millions more have been displaced from their homes or fled the country.
The bill urges, but does not explicitly require, all state pension funds and pension systems “to divest their stakes in all companies domiciled in Russia or Belarus,” while also urging all municipalities of Illinois to reconsider any sister city relationship they may have with cities in Russia.
A spokesperson for the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System, the state’s largest pension fund, said in an email that the system’s total exposure to Russian assets was only regarding $4.27 million, or 0.007% of the fund’s total portfolio. She has no investment in Belarus.
Public colleges and universities would also be required to disclose to the Council on Higher Education any endowments or other donations they receive from a source associated with any person or entity on the U.S. Treasury Department’s Sanctioned Entity List or of any company domiciled in or has its main establishment in Russia or Belarus.
The bill also urges the U.S. Department of State to resettle Ukrainian refugees in Illinois while giving the Illinois Department of Human Services the authority to pass emergency rules to ensure the availability of refugee services. resettlement of refugees.
Additionally, the bill seeks to prevent Russian interference in the Illinois election ahead of the 2024 races by creating an Election and Infrastructure Integrity Task Force to prepare for and prevent the foreign interference in elections.
Finally, the bill seeks to stem the flow of illicit money from Russian and other sources into the Illinois real estate market by creating a real estate money laundering task force to identify vulnerabilities in the real estate sector that facilitate money laundering.
The bill originally passed the House unanimously in April, just weeks following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but it did not pass the Senate due to the shortened schedule of the Illinois General Assembly last spring.
The Senate reviewed the bill during the first week of the veto session and made some minor changes before passing it 50-0 and sending it back to the House. On Wednesday, the House accepted the Senate changes and passed them, 109-0.
While no one has spoken out once morest the bill, R-Beecher City Rep. Blaine Wilhour said he would like to see similar legislation calling for divestment from companies tied to the Chinese Communist Party.
“Russia is a bad actor, no one disputes that, but China is worse,” Wilhour said. “I’m just asking that we hold back China, which along with many in our government and many in our businesses has taken advantage of working Americans for decades. And they are a much more powerful adversary. We must hold them to the same standards that we apply here with Russia. »
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide, as well as hundreds of radio and television stations. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
