H.1264/S.767
Timmon Wallis and Nick Cantrell of MA W2W, Walae Hayek of CFRI, Cole Harrison, and Abby Greenblatt of MAPA met on Friday, Feb 6th with Shane Correale, Legislative Director for State Senator, Paul Feeney.
Senator Feeney is the Senate chair of the Financial Services Committee that is considering a bill to divest Mass state pension funds from all entities involved in the the development, production, sale or financing of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
WMD are defined in the US Penal Code to include nuclear weapons but also many other types of weapon that are capable of killing a number of people at once, including many weapons being sold or delivered to the Israelis for use against civilians in Gaza.
Although many other bills have by now been rejected at the committee stage, the Responsible Investment bill is still under consideration. The Committee has until March 2nd to vote it favorably out of committee or not. Shane shared with the group some of the questions and concerns that the Committee has with the bill, and there was a useful exchange of information.
Senator Feeney has in fact supported other peace-related bills in the past, and showed an active interest in the testimony presented to the committee during the public hearing held in November. He even asked a question during the hearing, which was a first!
During the previous six years of holding public hearings on other nuclear weapons bills, no member of the Massachusetts legislature ever asked a question or even showed much interest in the powerful and compelling testimony that was being given in support of these bills. In many cases, they left it to staff and interns to listen to the testimony and were not even present at the hearings.
So there is some reason to remain optimistic about this bill, although even if it makes it out of committee, there are more hurdles to overcome before it can become law.
Meanwhile, the Back from the Brink resolution, S.1649, has been voted favorably out of a different committee, but has yet to be brought to a vote on the floor of the Massachusetts Senate.
Send a letter for an Act Promoting Responsible Investment here.