(The Center Square)
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis leads a coalition of governors from 18 states who have pledged to fight the Biden administration’s environmental, social and corporate governance agenda.
The governors said Biden’s investment program is a “decision to jeopardize the retirement savings of millions of Americans in order to promote far-left priorities.”
Joining DeSantis are the governors of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, from North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
The coalition argues that President Joe Biden’s ESG agenda is “destabilizing the US economy and the global financial system”.
“Under my leadership, Florida has led the way in combating the pernicious effects of the ESG regime by directing our state pension fund managers to reject ESG and instead focus on getting the best return on investment for Florida taxpayers and retirees,” DeSantis said, referring to the state last August assignment its pension system based on funds that prioritize ESG.
The coalition pledged to fight the administration’s ESG policies after 25 state attorneys general for follow-up administration about them in January. Many members of the Governor’s Coalition overlap with states represented in the AG Coalition.
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Last August, DeSantis pledged to “spearhead an initiative to join other like-minded states in sending an even stronger message to the financial industry that the American people have rejected ESG at the ballot box, and ideologues cannot and should not circumvent the will of the people.” The governor’s coalition, he said, “delivered on that promise.”
In a joint statement Released on Thursday, the governors said “Congress has exercised its powers under the Congressional Review Act” to disapprove of a Department of Labor rule, which the president has threatened to veto. In doing so, Biden “put his political agenda above the well-being and individual freedoms of hard-working Americans.”
The coalition of governors said, “…freedom-loving states can work together and leverage our state pension funds to force change in how major asset managers invest the money of working Americans. hard, ensuring companies focus on maximizing shareholder value, rather than proliferating woke ideology. .”
The rule jeopardizes the pensions of thousands of hard-working Americans, they argue, instead of “prioritizing investment decisions on the highest rate of return.”
The rule, “Prudence and fairness in selecting plan investments and exercising shareholder rights,” follows a Biden executive order issued last May. In it, he directed the federal government to implement policies “to help protect the financial security of American families, businesses, and workers from climate-related financial risks that could threaten workers’ savings and pensions.” and American families.
The rule change “will build the resilience of workers’ retirement savings and pensions by removing the artificial barriers – and chilling effect on environmental, social and governance investments – caused by the previous administration’s rules” said Acting Assistant Secretary of the Employee Benefits Security Administration Ali. Khawar said in a statement last fall. “A main idea underlying the proposal is that climate change and other ESG factors can be financially material and, when they are, their consideration will inevitably lead to better risk-adjusted returns over the long term, thereby protecting the retirement savings of American workers.”
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Governors say retirees are “already suffering from the Biden administration’s reckless tax policies” and are likely to “continue to experience diminished returns on investing their hard-earned cash while the corporate elite continue to use its economic power to impose policies on the country that they could not achieve at the ballot box.
Governors pledged to protect their residents and taxpayers by implementing several measures. These include “blocking the use of ESG in all investment decisions at the state and local level, ensuring that only financial factors are considered to maximize the return on investment, protecting pensioners and taxpayers”. This can also include “eliminating consideration of ESG factors by state and local governments when issuing bonds or prohibiting managers of public funds from considering ESG factors when issuing bonds. invest taxpayers’ money.
The governors also pledged to protect citizens from ESG influences in the financial sector by “prohibiting the financial sector from considering so-called ‘social credit scores’ in banking and lending practices aimed at preventing citizens from ‘obtain financial services such as loans, lines of credit and bank accounts.’ They also plan to “prevent financial institutions from discriminating against customers based on their religious, political or social beliefs, such as owning a firearm, securing the border or increasing our energy independence” .
The AG’s lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Amarillo Division of the Northern District and names Secretary of Labor Martin Walsh and the U.S. Department of Labor as defendants.
Syndicated with permission from The central square.