On House Floor, Rep. Vargas Speaks Out Against GOP Attempts to Roll Back Transparency and Block Essential Climate Risk Disclosures
WASHINGTON - Today on the House Floor, U.S. Representative Juan Vargas (CA-52), co-chair of the Congressional Sustainable Investment Caucus, spoke out against H.R. 4790 and attempts to limit access to information on how public companies are addressing climate risks and employee welfare.
“I know that giving responsible investors more information is a good thing. Not a bad thing. Evidence shows that bills targeting sustainable business practices directly harm taxpayers, investors, and hard-working Americans’ retirement savings,” said Rep. Juan Vargas. “We should be giving investors the information they need to continue growing pensions and retirement savings. This bill would do the opposite.”
A rough transcript of Rep. Vargas’s remarks is below.
Rep. Vargas: I rise in opposition to this bill. As co-chairman of the Sustainable Investment Caucus, I’m glad to join Ranking Member Waters and the other colleagues here to talk about protecting the freedom to invest.
Americans want their pensions and retirement savings to be invested responsibly.
And recent studies have shown that 80% of the investors want to invest in companies that consider climate risks, diverse hiring, and employee welfare.
Because investors understand that these factors have huge implications for the value of their investments, and depend on disclosures to make informed choices.
Corporations are spending up to $500,000 a year to evaluate their sustainable business practices because investors are asking for this information.
Many of these investors manage pensions and retirement savings for teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other hard-working Americans.
But House Leadership is bringing legislation to the Floor that limits access to the very information that investors want.
I submitted an amendment that would have protected the right of investors to access these disclosures. Unfortunately, this amendment and others intended to increase transparency were rejected.
The bill we are voting on today would make it more difficult for investors to maximize the returns on your retirement savings.
Why? Because House Leadership is trying to make it more difficult to consider risk factors they simply don’t like.
According to a 2023 Statehouse Report, retirees’ pension funds stand to lose billions of dollars due to Republican bills attacking sustainable, profitable investment practices.
If you really believe in the free market and capitalism, then you need to give investors the freedom to make their own decisions.
We need to grow pensions and retirement savings, not force them into shortsighted, riskier investments.
I know that giving responsible investors more information is a good thing. Not a bad thing.
Evidence shows that bills targeting sustainable business practices directly harm taxpayers, investors, hard-working Americans’ retirement savings.
We should be giving investors the information they need to continue growing pensions and retirement savings.
But this bill would do the opposite.
You know what was interesting in the intro and the comments so far they haven’t talked about the markets. They were saying that we were going to be in a recession. In fact, just the opposite has happened.
In fact, Chairman Gensler and this Administration has done such a good job that we saw the Dow Jones shoot past 40,000 points and now over 42,000 points.
Why? Because they’re doing a good job. Because they’re giving the information to the investors the investors want and they’re making good decisions.
But they again want to burn the books when it comes to information.
Is this America?
I rise in opposition.
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