NEWS

WASHINGTON (Summary of Associated Press Article) -- The U.S. Senate voted against legislation that would have stopped companies like Halliburton from investing in countries that are included on the State Department's list of terror-sponsoring nations. Federal law currently disallows American companies from transacting business with nations that sponsor terrorism, but foreign subsidiaries of such companies are not banned from such transactions. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), was included as an amendment to a bill authorizing $422.2 billion in defense programs for 2005. The amendment was defeated in a 50-49 vote mostly along party lines. Federal law already bans American subsidiaries based in the USA from doing business with countries that are thought to finance terrorism, including Iran, Sudan, Syria, Cuba, Libya and North Korea. Iraq officially remains on the list, but the sanctions have been waived. Congress has cited foreign subsidiaries of Halliburton, ConocoPhillips and General Electric as among the companies that do business with nations that sponsor terrorism.