Congress Passes Bill to Scrap Biden Environmental, Social, and Governance Rule

The Senate passed a resolution Tuesday that would scrap President Joe Biden’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rule, sending it to President Joe Biden’s desk for him to likely veto.

The Senate passed H.R. 30, 50-46, a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would nullify Biden’s ESG rule, or the Department of Labor’s “Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights” rule.

Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) and Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) sponsored the resolution.

Two Senate Democrats, Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), voted with Republicans to pass the resolution.

The resolution passed swiftly through the House and will soon go to Biden’s desk, where he likely veto the bill. This serves as the likely first veto of Biden’s presidency.

ESG is the latest vector through which the federal government, Wall Street asset managers, and activist investors push private companies to adopt leftist positions such as combatting climate change, advocating racial justice, and diversity requirements. Breitbart News has cataloged just a few of the incidents in which activist asset managers such as BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street push companies to adopt controversial views.

Outside groups, such as Consumers’ Research, have long advocated for reining in ESG investing. Consumers’ Research cheered passed of H.J. 30, saying in a written statement:

For too long the intentionally obtuse investment strategy known as ESG has been used as a progressive weapon to reshape American culture and force partisan action in areas of life that have traditionally been free of political activism. Today, Congress sent a clear, bipartisan message to the Biden Administration and Wall Street elites that the American peoples’ voice is being heard and we will no longer allow the administrative state and their billionaire buddies to weaponize our retirements against us. This is just the beginning of a long battle for the future of our nation, but the tide is shifting and Woke Wall Street is on notice, you can’t take advantage of hardworking Americans and attempt to circumvent the democratic process to push your agenda and expect to get away with it.

Derek Kreifels, the CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation, said in a written statement:

Today’s bipartisan vote makes clear what we have long said: ESG is an attempt to circumvent the democratic process to advance an inherently political agenda. Any move to supplant or dilute the fiduciary duty would undercut the foundations of our economic freedom and harm the American worker. I’m proud of the role that state financial officers like Riley Moore, Marlo Oaks, John Schroeder, Allison Ball, and many others have played in pushing back against the effort by the Biden Administration’s to codify ESG through executive rule making.

Kreifels added, “We will continue to provide the support necessary for these states to continue the fight.”