Topeka ? The public pension system in Kansas is now free to invest in companies that do business in Sudan, a joint legislative committee was told Monday.

Kansas lawmakers passed a law in 2007 requiring the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System to divest itself of holdings in any company that had active business operations in Sudan or any company that had contracts with other oil or mining firms that did business there.

The law was a response to the government-sponsored genocide that was occurring in the Darfur region of the country. As it was written, though, the ban is automatically repealed if the U.S. federal government lifts its sanctions against the country, which President Donald Trump did in October, although the process of lifting the sanctions actually began during the end of the Obama administration.

At the time the law was passed, the pension system had about $34 million invested in companies that met the criteria for divestment. The largest of those was a $16 million stake in an oil company called PetroChina.

Under the law, however, KPERS was required to continually monitor its holdings in the event a company began operations in Sudan or contracted with another firm that did. KPERS also was required to make annual reports to a legislative oversight committee to document its compliance with the law, which officials did Monday.

According to that report, during the past year, a Chinese petrochemical company and a Chinese construction company that have been on the do-not-invest list both opened new subsidiaries, and those subsidiaries were added to the list as well.

Senate Vice President Jeff Longbine, R-Emporia, who serves on the Joint Committee on Pensions, Investments and Benefits, said after the meeting that the panel will recommend that the 2018 Legislature repeal the statute.