PROVIDENCE — A Sudan divestment bill got signs of encouragement, but no vote yet, in a hearing yesterday before a key House committee.

House Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino said this year’s legislation is a “much better bill” than last year’s. The committee’s legal counsel, Robert Carr, called the new bill “much more detailed,” and noted that it contains additional protections for the state.

No one testified in opposition to the bill, and the chief witness in favor was General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio, who also requested its introduction.

The bill would force the state’s pension fund to sell its investments in companies that appear on a list of the “worst offenders” in terms of aiding or enabling genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region, propagated by government-backed militias. A similar measure was heard last year, but never got a vote in committee, and Paul J. Tavares, general treasurer at the time, expressed reservations about the bill.

Tavares said the state’s ultimate responsibility was to get the maximum return possible on the pension investments. However, backers of this year’s bill — Caprio included — say it will not negatively affect the fund’s performance, and may actually improve performance if the “worst offender” companies’ stock loses value as the divestment movement gains momentum.

Just in case, the drafters included a clause saying that if “clear and convincing evidence” shows divestment has caused the pension fund to lose at least one half of one percent of its value, the divestment process will stop and the pension fund may buy back the investments that were sold.

So far, 35 universities, 6 states and 5 cities have passed divestment measures, Brown University student Scott Warren testified. Warren, a field organizer with the Sudan Divestment Task Force and the head of Brown’s Darfur Action Network, said Rhode Island is among 25 states considering divestment this year.

Warren said several major companies, including Switzerland’s ABB Group and Germany’s Siemens, have pulled out of Sudan and have cited the divestment campaign among their reasons. “This movement is working,” he said.

While the bill defines criteria for determining which companies to divest from, for practical purposes, the State Investment Commission would rely on a list of companies prepared and monitored by the Sudan Divestment Task Force, using the same criteria the bill lists. The pension fund would be barred from investing in companies on the list, and would be required to sell investments in companies added to the list.

Right now, the $8-billion pension fund includes just $2 million invested in companies on the list. Those companies are Petronas, an oil and gas company owned by the Malaysian government, and Rolls-Royce, the U.K.-based maker of aircraft engines, ship engines and energy-industry infrastructure.

Petronas holds a contract with the Sudanese government that includes refueling the very airplanes used to bomb villages in Darfur, and Rolls-Royce has supplied Sudan’s government with engines for oil refineries, according to Caprio’s office.

The measure would not affect U.S.-based companies, which have been barred from operating in Sudan since 1997.

The divestment bill was 1 among 14 the committee considered during yesterday’s hearing, which drew two dozen people despite snow, sleet and predictions of a flash freeze.

The committee had planned a vote on a bill that would amend state law to state explicitly that charitable giving cannot be considered as a criterion in determining residency for tax purposes. Although the state Division of Taxation does not use donations to charities in deciding to challenge claims of residency outside Rhode Island, nonprofits say they are losing out on donations as accountants advise clients to err on the side of caution. If enacted, the change is expected to affect Rhode Islanders who have moved to other states — for instance, to retire — and wish to donate to charities here without fear the state will try to collect Rhode Island income tax from them.

But the inclement weather yesterday meant the committee fell short of the nine-member quorum for voting on bills, as opposed to merely hearing bills. Only seven members attended.

Costantino said the committee will vote on the charitable giving bill at its next meeting, tentatively scheduled for Feb. 27.

The Senate Finance Committee has already passed a companion bill, which is scheduled for consideration by the full Senate today.

egudrais@projo.com