WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday issued the first veto of his presidency as he sought to block Republican-led efforts in Congress to overturn a Labor Department rule allowing retirement plans to consider environmental, social and governance factors when making investment decisions.
The Labor Department rule ended a Trump-era ban on managers of retirement plans considering factors such as climate change or pending lawsuits when making investment choices. Because suits and climate change have financial repercussions, administration officials argue that their predecessors were courting possible disaster.
Critics say ESG investments allocate money based on political agendas, such as a drive against climate change, rather than on earning the best returns for savers. Republicans in Congress who pushed the measure to overturn the Labor Department’s action argue ESG is just the latest example of the world trying to get “woke.”
Only two Democrats in the Senate voted for the measure, making it unlikely that backers of the effort in Congress could reach the two-thirds majority required in each chamber to override the veto.
Senator Joe Manchin released the following statement regarding President Biden’s veto: “This Administration continues to prioritize their radical policy agenda over the economic, energy and national security needs of our country, and it is absolutely infuriating. West Virginians are under increasing stress as we continue to recover from a once in a generation pandemic, pay the bills amid record inflation, and face the largest land war in Europe since World War II. The Administration’s unrelenting campaign to advance a radical social and environmental agenda is only exacerbating these challenges. This ESG rule will weaken our energy, national and economic security while jeopardizing the hard-earned retirement savings of 150 million West Virginians and Americans. Despite a clear and bipartisan rejection of the rule from Congress, President Biden is choosing to put his Administration’s progressive agenda above the well-being of the American people.”
WV State Treasurer released the following statement: “With his first veto, President Biden has made clear he stands with the woke capitalists and their radical globalist agenda instead of the best interests and financial security of the American people,” Treasurer Moore said. “This rule will allow Wall Street elites to use the pension and retirement plans of millions of hard-working Americans to advance left-wing social agendas that undermine our citizens’ values and way of life.
“A bipartisan majority in Congress spoke loud and clear that they thought this rule was harmful and went too far, yet President Biden chose to ignore the will of the people’s elected representatives. Congress is supposed to write the laws in this country, not unelected agency bureaucrats serving deep-state agendas.”
