On Wednesday, the Senate followed the House in passing a joint resolution to nullify a recent Biden Administration rule that allows asset managers to prioritize less-profitable ideological causes over profit maximization when investing their clients’ retirement funds.
Biden’s Labor Department rule had freed managers of retirement account and pension funds from their fiduciary responsibility to consider only profitability, so that they could put their clients’ money in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments yielding lower returns with higher fees.
The joint resolution (H.J. Res. 30) passed the Senate by a four-vote margin, with the help of two Democrat senators, Townhall reports:
“By a vote of 50-46, Republicans were joined by Senators Jon Tester (D-MT) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) to pass the joint resolution that was approved by a bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. Senators Michael Crapo (R-ID), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), John Fetterman (D-PA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) were absent from Wednesday's Senate vote.”
On Tuesday, H.J. Res. 30 passed the House, on a bipartisan of 216-204 – the same day that the White House released a statement promising that President Joe Biden intends to veto the measure.
If Biden does veto H.J. Res. 30, it will be the first veto of his presidency and he will still have to overcome lawsuits, including one by 25 state attorneys general.
“For too long the intentionally obtuse investment strategy known as ESG has been used as a progressive weapon to reshape American culture and force partisan action in areas of life that have traditionally been free of political activism,” Will Hild, Executive Director, Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild said in a statement, heralding the Senate vote:
“Today, Congress sent a clear, bipartisan message to the Biden Administration and Wall Street elites that the American peoples’ voice is being heard and we will no longer allow the administrative state and their billionaire buddies to weaponize our retirements against us.”