Congress sends Biden a measure to stop ‘woke’ 401(k)s
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Congress sends Biden a measure to stop ‘woke’ 401(k)s
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed a measure to block retirement account managers from considering environmental, social, and corporate governance principles (ESG) when evaluating investments in retirement plans.
The joint resolution measure, approved in a 50-46 vote, aims to overturn a Labor Department rule that currently allows fiduciaries to consider those factors. But it's set to be blocked when it arrives at the White House in what would be President Biden’s first veto since taking office.
The Wednesday afternoon vote was the highest-profile swipe yet from Republicans who are aiming to reverse a decades-long trend in Corporate America of taking factors like environmental impact into consideration when it comes to investment decisions in addition to just profits.
In a recent speech, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) strenuously argued for the measure saying “in effect, we are talking about letting financial companies garnish the retirement savings of workers without their permission in order to pursue unrelated liberal political goals.”
Most Democrats counter that the charges against the rule are overblown because it doesn’t require retirement plans to include ESG considerations. It simply allows the option.
"I come to the floor sort of confounded," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Wednesday as voting got underway claiming that "the hard right has made a lot of noise trying to make ESG their dirty little acronym."
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Tuesday, Schumer expanded on his argument and noted that Republicans have also advocated making money managers “consider factors that don’t strictly relate to financial returns” such as ties to Russia or China.
The Biden administration had previously promised to veto the measure with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterating that pledge to reporters on Wednesday afternoon.
'A political wedge issue'
During a recent Yahoo Finance Live interview, Stance Capital Founding Partner Bill Davis said the political efforts around ESG have been a drag on the sector.
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