BILL ANALYSIS
AB 619
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Date of Hearing: August 23, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
AB 619 (Blumenfield) - As Amended: July 15, 2010
SUBJECT : High-speed rail contract information disclosure
SUMMARY : Requires any entity that intends to contract with the
California High-Speed Rail Authority (HSRA) to disclose any
direct involvement in the deportation of individuals to
extermination camps, work camps, concentration camps, prisoner
of war camps, or any similar camps, from 1942 through 1944.
Would require HSRA to note the importance of compliance with
these requirements in its procurement solicitation documents,
and acknowledge disclosed information when awarding contracts.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Make findings and declarations relative to the California
high-speed rail passenger proposed system.
2)Require any entity that intends to contract with HSRA to
affirmatively certify in advance of submitting a formal bid
for contracted work any direct involvement in the deportation
of individuals to extermination camps, work camps,
concentration camps, prisoner of war camps, or any similar
camps, from 1942 through 1944.
3)Require entities responding in the affirmative to certify the
following:
a) Whether it has any records (whenever created) in its
possession, custody, or control related to those
deportations; and,
b) Whether the entity has taken remedial action concerning
those deportations, including restitution to all
identifiable victims subject to deportation;
4)Allow an entity certifying direct involvement in deportations
to provide HSRA with any mitigating circumstances in narrative
and documentary form.
5)Require HSRA to acknowledge the information provided when
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awarding contracts and to note the importance of complying
with the information requests in its procurement solicitation
documents.
6)Define "direct involvement" to mean ownership or operation of
the trains on which persons were deported to extermination
camps, work camps, concentration camps, prisoner of war camps,
or any similar camps during the period from January 1, 1942,
through December 31, 1944.
7)Define "entity" to mean any corporation, affiliate, or other
entity that controls, is controlled by, or is under common
control with, or that is a member of a partnership or a
consortium with an entity affected by this bill.
8)Require that any contract bids or proposals submitted to HSRA
for goods or services conform with state public contract
procedures.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the HSRA and charges it with the planning,
designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining a
state-of-the-art high-speed train system for California.
2)Enacts the Safe, Reliable High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act
for the 21st Century (High-Speed Rail Bond Act). The
High-Speed Rail Bond Act, approved as Proposition 1A in
November 2008, provides $9.95 billion in general obligation
bond authority to fund the planning and construction of a
high-speed passenger train system and complementary
improvements to other specified rail systems in the state.
3)Authorizes, through enactment of the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the recently enacted federal
economic stimulus package), $8 billion for high-speed rail
passenger services throughout the nation.
4)Establishes contracting procedures for the procurement of
goods and services by public entities.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, unknown costs to HSRA for administering the bill's
contractual provisions potentially over $50,000.
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COMMENTS : This bill is intended to create a public record of
the involvement of entities contracting with HSRA in the
deportation of persons to specified camps during World War II.
According to the author, "although hundreds of companies are
known to have profited from activities supporting the Holocaust,
most of them have admitted their wrongdoing, and in the decades
since, have made reparations to victims and their families.
Only a very few have not done so, but chief among them is one
company that is expected to compete for California's high speed
rail contract, SNCF. This company has never admitted its
actions, disclosed its records or been held accountable to
victims. By requiring companies seeking to be awarded the
high-speed rail contract to publicly disclose their involvement,
AB 619 seeks to ensure that companies that benefit from the high
speed rail system take responsibility for their involvement in
the horrific actions related to deportations to Nazi
concentration camps."
Background: The author's focus of this bill is the deportation
of persons to the various categories of camps in Europe. The
period covered by the bill begins with January 1, 1942, the
month in which the Nazi Regime decided at the Wannsee Conference
that Jews would be deported from their countries of residence in
Europe to concentration camps for extermination. December 31,
1944 is when the deportation of Jews was stopped. During this
time of the Holocaust, millions of Jews were transported by
railroad to extermination camps. All the national railroads in
Europe were involved in wartime activities, including
transporting people to concentration and other camps. The
author has focused attention on Soci?t? Nationale des Chemins de
Fer Fran?ais (French National Railway Corporation - SNCF), which
was created as a state enterprise in 1938, when the French
government nationalized five private railroad companies. It has
been documented that SNCF transported 75,000 Jews from France
east to concentration camps. Today, SNCF remains a state owned
company.
Other railroads were also involved in the transportation of Jews
in Europe, most notably the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German
national railroad. It was created in 1924 and was placed under
the control of the Nazi government in 1937. During the period
covered by this bill it is well documented that it carried Jews
to concentration and other kinds of camps. Both SNCF and
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Deutsche Reichsbahn were paid to carry persons to the camps.
In 1949, the Deutsche Bundesbahn, was created as the successor
to the Deutsche Reichsbahn and was owned by German government
until 1994. The successor to Deutsche Bundesbahn is Deutsche
Bahn AG, a private railroad operating company.
Although the discussion around AB 619 has focused on Europe,
this bill applies to all firms, including participants in
partnerships, consortium or other business relationships, who
may submit bids for contracts with HSRA. It, therefore, applies
to the Asian-Pacific Theatre of WW II. In Asia, the Japanese
Government Railways operated trains on the main islands of Japan
between 1907 and 1949. This operation transported prisoners of
war to various kinds of camps in Japan. In addition, about
670,000 Koreans were brought to Japan against their will by the
government to work in factories and mines often under appalling
conditions. These individuals were moved about Japan by rail.
In 1949, the Japanese Government Railroad was reorganized into a
state owned public corporation referred to as the Japanese
National Railroad. In 1987, the Japanese National Railroad was
privatized and the Japanese Rail Group was formed as its
successor. Seven for-profit firms were created during the
privatization. One of the companies, the JR Central, operates
Japan's Shinkansen high-speed train service, the most heavily
patronized high-speed rail passenger service in the world.
In regard to the United States, privately owned railroads
transported American citizens of Japanese ancestry as well as
Japanese who were legal residents in the country to internment
camps throughout the West. The railroads also transported
prisoners of war to incarceration facilities in the country. In
1970, Congress enacted legislation creating a government
corporation, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, which
operates Amtrak services. The enabling act permitted railroad
corporations operating passenger service to transfer their
service to Amtrak and to allow Amtrak to operate over their
private rail freight lines. This freed the rail freight
companies from any legal obligations to provide rail passenger
services. Amtrak was allowed to terminate existing rail
passenger services and decide how to organize the services it
wanted to provide. Amtrak is not a corporate successor in
interest of the corporations that previously provided passenger
rail services.
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Foreign firms and the high-speed rail project: The California
high-speed rail project cannot be developed and operated without
the involvement of foreign firms, since no U.S. firm can match
the experience of foreign companies in developing and operating
high-speed service. For example, SNCF, which has indicated an
interest in participating in the project, operates 1,100 miles
of high-speed lines in France. Representatives of Japanese
business firms also have shown an interest in participating in
the project. The JR Central operates the most heavily traveled
high-speed service in the world, the Tokaido Shinkansen,
operating between Tokyo and Osaka. If Deutsche Bahn AG, as well
as SNCF and JR Central, were interested in the participating in
the high-speed rail program, they would likely be affected by
the provisions of AB 619.
Additionally, according to internet sources, "preceding World
War II Siemens was involved in funding the rise of the Nazi
Party and the secret rearmament of Germany. During World War II,
Siemens supported the Hitler regime, contributed to the war
effort and participated in the "Nazification" of the economy.
Siemens had many factories in and around notorious concentration
camps to build electric switches for military uses. In one
example, almost 100,000 men and women from Auschwitz worked in a
Siemens factory inside the camp, supplying the electricity to
the camp." Although not subject to the bill's provisions as it
was not involved in deportation, Siemens is likely to be
interested in manufacturing high-speed rail cars for HSRA as it
has purchased additional area adjacent to it current light-rail
car manufacturing facility in Sacramento County.
California's previous experience addressing Holocaust issues:
AB 600 (Knox), Chapter 827, Statutes of 1999, enacted the
Holocaust Victim Insurance Relief Act of 1999, that required the
State Insurance Commissioner to establish and maintain a
registry of Holocaust victims to whom insurance policies were
issued in Europe between 1920 and 1945. In addition, AB 600
authorized Holocaust victims who are residents of the state and
to whom policies were sold during that period, beneficiaries of
the policies, or heirs of beneficiaries to bring legal action
against such firms, if they believe they are entitled to unpaid
benefits. The United Statutes Supreme Court held AB 600 to be
unconstitutional, since it infringed upon the power of the
President to resolve foreign policy issues, such as
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Holocaust-era claims. To be sure, AB 619 is not seeking
economic restitution, only acknowledgement of wrong doing, but
it is addressing a matter that may be viewed as within the scope
of presidential foreign policy making. Moreover, there is a
possibility that HSRA may require information that firms are not
obliged to disclose under terms of agreements to which the
United States is a signatory. This could engender legal action.
Support: Writing in support of this bill, the Los Angeles
Museum of the Holocaust indicates that "The governing board of
the HSRA will begin awarding contracts as early as next year to
spearhead the construction of the high-speed rail system. The
construction of the high-speed rail network will be paid for by
state and federal taxpayer dollars and bond sales. Due to this,
we believe that the residents of California have a direct
interest in making sure that companies that are awarded the
contracts publicly disclose their involvement in the
deportations of California residents and families of California
residents prior to being awarded any high-speed rail
construction contract. Moreover, we believe it's important to
require companies seeking the contracts to provide transparency
and take responsibility for actions that have so tragically
affected the lives of many Californians and thousands of
others."
Opposition: Writing in opposition to this bill, the California
Chamber of Commerce indicates that "While amendments have been
taken to the bill, AB 619 still places the HSRA in the position
of having to take into consideration the role a company played
in the Holocaust. For example, a company was involved in the
deportation but doesn't want to acknowledge it or provide the
information on remedial actions because it hasn't taken any
wants to bid for a contract. Under this circumstance, will the
HSRA merely acknowledge this and seriously consider this company
as a bidder? Or would the HSRA cast that company's bid aside,
even though they are not required to but will face negative PR
if that company received the bid? Though the bill no longer
requires the HSRA from excluding such a company, the prospect
that the authority would face negative PR implies that the
authority would do so even if the company is qualified. It is
our belief that this has protectionist effects."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
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Support
Bet Tzedek The House of Justice
Jewish Family Services of Los Angeles
Jewish Labor Committee
Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
Second Generation Los Angeles
30 Years After
Opposition
California Chamber of Commerce
Analysis Prepared by : Ed Imai / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093