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House Democrats make plans to counter the ESG pushback (2023)
| Environmental, social, and corporate governance |
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| • What is ESG? • Enacted ESG legislation • Arguments for and against ESG • Opposition to ESG • Federal ESG rules • ESG legislation tracker • Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's weekly ESG newsletter |
Congressional Democrats are also focused on ESG and pushing back against opposition to the investing strategy:
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When Republicans began trumpeting plans to crack down on green-minded investments following their House takeover, Democrats started preparing a counterattack. The result was the mobilization of the Sustainable Investment Caucus, conceived of as an educational clearinghouse for members of both parties on environmental, social and governance investing, known as ESG. With Republicans wanting to make policy and political gains against the practice, the caucus has become a de facto messaging war room for Democrats. “I think we beat the snot out of them, from a political perspective,” said co-chair Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.). “We made them answer to the truth.” Casten and the caucus’ other chair, Rep. Juan Vargas (D-Calif.), deployed their strategy in July when the House Financial Services Committee convened six hearings and a markup over the course of two weeks during what was dubbed “ESG Month.” … Democrats characterized Republican opposition to ESG as anti-capitalist, discouraging market choice and investor freedom by suggesting ESG factors should not be taken into account. They accused Republicans of endangering retirement accounts by denying financial managers access to critical data, and berated them for ignoring the realities of climate change as a serious financial risk. The talking points came from a 32-page memo the Sustainable Investment Caucus prepared and distributed among Financial Services Committee Democrats. The group also held a series of staff and member briefings, and office-to-office outreach over several months to educate and prepare lawmakers. As a result, many Republicans had to use their speaking allotments during the hearings and markup to defend themselves against comparisons to communist leaders or dispute characterizations that their party had abandoned President Ronald Reagan. … Vargas and Casten said creating the caucus was about being prepared to go head to head with anti-ESG forces if necessary, which necessitated addressing the obvious knowledge gaps around ESG on Capitol Hill, even within their own party. At the official launch event in late January, the only other lawmaker to join Vargas and Casten was freshman Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.), a former state treasurer who also once worked as vice president of an ESG investment firm. Since that time, the group has grown to 19 members. “As Republicans kept harping on this more and more, Democrats, I think, began to realize this was a space where they needed to be knowledgeable,” Magaziner said. The intention was to have pro-ESG Republicans join the caucus, but invitations were either rejected or ignored, turning the Sustainable Investment Caucus into a partisan entity by default. This enabled Vargas and Casten to team up with House Financial Services ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) to conduct joint background briefings and produce a complementary set of memos prior to the flurry of July hearings. The Sustainable Investment Caucus’ messaging document included exhaustive context about each of the scheduled hearings and lists of sample questions to ask invited witnesses. “We were prepared,” said an aide to a Democratic member of the Financial Services Committee. “We were all singing from the same song sheet.”[1] |
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See also
- Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)
- Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's ESG newsletter
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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