Iran Sanctions Enabling Act

Bill: 110-s-1430
Sponsor: Sen. Obama, Barack [D-IL]
Introduced: 2007-05-17 in the Senate
Policy area: International Affairs
Subjects: American investments
Armed Forces and National Security
Arms control
Arms sales
Ballistic missiles
Bank loans
Biological warfare
Chemical warfare
Civil actions and liability
Civil service retirement
Colleges
Commercial blacklisting
Congress
Congress and foreign policy
Congressional oversight
Congressional reporting requirements
Crime and Law Enforcement
Criminal liability
Development credit institutions
Directories
Education
Employee benefit plans
Energy
Federal employees
Federal preemption
Finance and Financial Sector
Foreign Trade and International Finance
Foreign investments
Foreign loans
Gas industry
Genocide
Government Operations and Politics
Government publicity
Higher education
International banking
Investment of public funds
Iran
Israel
Labor and Employment
Law
Liability (Law)
Middle East and North Africa
Military technology
Mutual funds
Nuclear nonproliferation
Nuclear weapons
Petroleum industry
President and foreign policy
Sanctions (International law)
Science, Technology, Communications
State-sponsored terrorism
Technology transfer
Terrorism
Trusts and trustees

Summary:
action_date: 2007-05-17
text: 
Iran Sanctions Enabling Act of 2007 - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to: (1) publish biannually in the Federal Register a list of each person, whether within or outside of the United States, that has an investment of more than $20 million in the energy sector in Iran; and (2) maintain on the website of the Department of the Treasury the names of the persons on such list.
 
States it is the policy of the United States to support the decision of state and local governments and educational institutions to divest from, and to prohibit the investment of assets they control in, persons included on the most recent list.
 
Authorizes a state or local government to adopt and enforce measures to divest its assets from, or prohibit investment of assets in, persons included on the most recent list.
 
Amends the Investment Company Act of 1940 to shield any registered investment company from civil, criminal, or administrative action based upon its divesting from, or avoiding investing in, securities issued by companies included on such most recent list.
 
Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to shield from treatment as breaching a fiduciary duty any person divesting plan assets from, or avoiding investing plan assets in, persons included on such most recent list.
 
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board should: (1) initiate efforts to provide a terror-free international investment option among the funds of the Thrift Savings Fund; and (2) initiate similar efforts to provide a genocide-free international investment option.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-07-26
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S10141-10142)
action_date: 2007-05-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
action_date: 2007-05-17
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S6309-6310)
action_date: 2007-05-17
text: Introduced in Senate