30+ Advocacy Groups Write Letter to House Leadership in Opposition to Anti-ESG Bills

WASHINGTON, DC — Americans for Financial Reform, Sierra Club, and more than 30 advocacy groups have written a letter to House leadership in opposition to eight anti-ESG bills that were marked up by the House Financial Services Committee and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.  

• Read the letter: https://ourfinancialsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Coalition-letter-re_-anti-ESG-House-floor-vote.pdf 

“These bills are part of a broader, unpopular campaign against common sense investment practices that seeks to both force financial actors to ignore a slew of financial risks to the detriment of workers’ retirement security and the integrity of our financial system, and weaken tools of corporate accountability,” reads the letter.

The bills marked up by the House Financial Services Committee in July were the culmination of what the committee’s majority publicly characterized as “ESG month” — a series of six hearings and a markup designed to discourage financial actors from taking into account environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in their investment decision-making and undermine corporate accountability. 

The House Financial Services Committee  bills can be categorized based on the effects they would have:

• Undermine regulations that would equip investors with more information to make better investment decisions (H.R. 4790);
• Insulate the management of public companies from investor input and accountability, including by eliminating fundamental investor rights to file shareholder proposals (H.R. 4767 and H.R. 4655); and
• Hamstring the ability of federal banking regulators to respond effectively to micro- and macro-prudential risks to the financial system (H.R. 4823).

The bills marked up by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in September would amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) with the effect of undermining workers’ retirement security. 

Two of the bills (H.R. 5339 and H.R. 5337) have a longer history, mirroring two Trump-era Department of Labor rules.  Those rules were widely criticized and have since been rescinded because they produced significant confusion about what fiduciaries are allowed to consider when making investment decisions, and had a chilling effect on the consideration of financially relevant information – thereby putting workers’ retirement security at risk. 

The other two bills would also harm workers saving for retirement. H.R. 5338 would interfere with efforts to increase diversity among asset managers managing workers’ savings and H.R. 5340 would mandate confusing and misleading information be sent to investors.

“Congress should not lend support to an effort that would harm the public interest and has triggered fierce and effective opposition from a broad coalition of diverse stakeholders,” reads the letter. “Voters overwhelmingly oppose measures like these. Although the anti-ESG campaign is well-funded, polling decidedly shows a strong majority of voters do not support its goals.”

The letter was led by Americans for Financial Reform and signed by 17 Communications, 350.org. Adrian Dominican Sisters Portfolio Advisory Board, AFL-CIO, Alabama Interfaith Power & Light, American Federation of Teachers, Center for Popular Democracy, ClientEarth USA, Communications Workers of America, Congregation of St. Joseph, Daughters of Charity Province of St. Louise, Environmental Defense Fund, For the Long Term, Green America, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Invest Vegan, Majority Action, Mercy Investment Services Inc, National Education Association, National Women’s Law Center, Private Equity Stakeholder Project, Public Citizen, Rhia Ventures, Rise Economy (formerly California Reinvestment Coalition), Sierra Club, SOC Investment Group, Stance Capital, Strong Economy For All Coalition, Take on Wall Street, The People’s Justice Council, and Tulipshare Sustainable Investment Fund.