House Republicans Issue Anti-ESG Priorities for 118th Congress

House Republicans identified eight key areas of environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies it will focus on for the rest of the 118th Congress.

The priorities range from reforming the shareholder-voting process and increasing oversight of large asset managers, to more closely supervising the Securities and Exchange Commission as it develops climate-change disclosure rules.

The report, the first from a group of House lawmakers that make up the ESG Working Group, lays out ways President Joe Biden’s administration has used ESG in his tenure and how it will focus its efforts for the next year and a half.

The report identifies nearly a dozen ways to revamp the proxy-voting process, including shareholder-proposal submission and resubmission, and holding proxy-advisory firms accountable.

The memo also identifies ESG ratings agencies that the group says have had an outsize influence on investors.

The group is led by Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) and eight other House Republican lawmakers. It was established by House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) in February.

“The Working Group will continue to underscore the fact that ESG initiatives often fail to generate robust financial returns, while the concentration of control within proxy advisory firms and certain influential asset managers raises significant doubts about the credibility and efficacy of the ESG movement,” the lawmakers wrote.