Bill
S 767
Mandates identifying, divesting from, and banning investments and contracts with WMD entities by Massachusetts public funds and state agencies within 12 months.
Status & procedural history
- Introduced in the Massachusetts Senate by Sen. Patricia D. Jehlen on 1/16/2025 (filed as S.767; read twice and referred to committee).
- Official status: SUBSTITUTED BY A424 (2/4/2025). Additional committee referrals and hearings were scheduled (committee activity and multiple hearing reschedules noted, including hearings set for 11/18/2025).
Purpose
- Require the Commonwealth’s pooled public pension fund (the Pension Reserves Investment Trust / Pension Reserves Investment Management Board — “Public Fund” / “Board”) and state agencies to identify, avoid, and divest investments and contracts with entities that manufacture, produce, promote, sell, or distribute weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Key definitions
- “Board”: Pension Reserves Investment Management Board (PRIM).
- “Public Fund”: PRIT and assets managed by the Board (state employees’, teachers’, and certain local retirement systems’ assets).
- “WMD” and “WMD Entities”: Uses federal definition of weapons of mass destruction per 18 U.S.C. § 2332a(c); “WMD Entities” means any entity that manufactures/produces/promotes/sells/distributes or facilitates such activities.
Major provisions and timeline
- Identification (Section 2): Within 30 days of the act’s effective date, the Public Fund must identify all WMD Entities in which it holds investments and file a list with the Attorney General and legislative clerks. The Attorney General must make the list public within 60 days of filing.
- Divestment and policy prohibition (Section 3): The Public Fund must adopt a settled policy not to hold investments in WMD Entities and must sell, redeem, divest, or withdraw all such investments within 12 months. The Board must amend policies provided to external managers to forbid future investments in WMD Entities and instruct managers to divest or segregate such holdings.
- State contracts (Section 6): All state agencies must review contracts, identify existing contracts with WMD Entities, promptly terminate where practicable, and refrain from entering new contracts with those entities. Agencies must file lists of such contracts with the Attorney General and legislative clerks; the AG will publish the lists.
- Reporting (Section 7): The Public Fund must file annual reports listing investments divested under the act during the prior year and prohibited investments not yet divested.
Legal protections and exemptions
- Section 4: Actions taken in compliance with the act are exempted from conflicting statutory or common-law obligations.
- Section 5: Board members, officers, employees, and contracted investment managers are indemnified and held harmless by the Commonwealth from claims arising from decisions to restrict/reduce/eliminate investments in WMD Entities.
Who is affected
- PRIT / PRIM Board and the assets they manage (state employees, teachers, participating local systems).
- External and internal investment managers and funds that hold assets for the Public Fund.
- All state agencies contracting with private entities.
- Identified WMD Entities (may be subject to divestment and contract termination).
Potential impacts (operational)
- Portfolio adjustments and transaction activity required within a 12-month window; potential implementation costs and operational work to identify complex holdings.
- Changes to contracting practices across state agencies and potential procurement implications (the bill states it does not relieve agencies of other procurement obligations).
- Legal/administrative risk mitigated by statutory exemptions and indemnification provided in the bill.
Notes
- The bill text provides no dollar amounts or explicit fiscal estimates.
- Some external metadata in the provided record (lists of federal senators as sponsors) appears inconsistent with the Massachusetts bill authorship; primary Massachusetts sponsor in the text is Sen. Patricia D. Jehlen.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
Sign in to ask a question.
