The Biden administration’s lefty ESG push got KO’d by conservatives in Congress.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the U.S. Senate, by a 50-46 margin, blocked an administration regulatory measure allowing retirement-plan fund managers to consider climate change and other alleged social justice factors when deciding how to invest clients’ money.
Most prominent among these factors is the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) responsibility advancing through corporate America.
The Free Press reported today that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis noted this week that “ESG is a way for the left to achieve through corporate power what it can’t get at the ballot box.”
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The Republican-led House tossed President Joe Biden’s proposed regulation by a 216-204 party-line vote.
In the Senate, according to the Journal, moderate Democrats from GOP-leaning states, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, sided with Republicans to deal Biden the setback.
Biden has declared that he will issue his first veto with this bill.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre complained that the GOP-backed bill “forces MAGA Republican ideology down the throats of the private sector.”
Never mind that woke corporate CEOs and activists have been shoving leftist ideology down Americans’ throats for years.
DeSantis noted in recent comments, “The regrettable upshot of the woke ascendancy is that publicly traded corporations have become combatants in battles over American politics and culture, almost invariably siding with leftist causes.
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“It is unthinkable,” he added, “that large companies would side with conservative Americans on the Second Amendment, the right to life, election integrity or religious liberty.”
The Journal noted that leavening ESG thinking into corporate policies “has become common in the finance world as hedge funds and investment firms have sought to address climate change and environmental impacts.”
Republicans counter that fund managers should focus on boosting investment returns for clients rather than factoring left-wing politics into such decisions.
According to the Journal, congressional Republicans defeated the Biden rule by invoking the Congressional Review Act, which allows lawmakers to overturn new regulations by a simple majority vote.
The Journal noted that GOP lawmakers now envision using the Congressional Review Act to “target other Biden administration rules that they view as harmful to consumers, citing regulations in the works tied to gas stoves and appliances.”
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