ESG Disclosure Simplification Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. DONALDS. Mr. Speaker, full disclosure, I actually do not sit on the Financial Services Committee, but my career has actually been in financial services. I spent the last 17 years of my life working in banking, insurance, and financial services.

I understand the importance of protecting investors and ensuring fairness in the market, which is part of the mission of the SEC. In fact, it was so important to me that during my time in the Florida legislature, I introduced legislation that was designed to protect vulnerable investors, and that legislation has actually become law in the State of Florida.

H.R. 1187 is inconsistent with the mission of the SEC. It does not protect investors; it is not fair or efficient. It is the exact opposite. It is nothing more than a government-run litmus test that politicizes the SEC and contradicts the very important mission of the SEC.

Mandating public companies to disclose details that are not financially relevant or material is an abuse of power. Not to mention, we see companies who are willing to disclose this information on their own, and they are taking steps to address some of the issues that my friends on the other side of the aisle might want to mandate. Just the other day, Ralph Lauren came out and they said they were going to publicly disclose this information. It is good for them to do, if they choose to do so, but this puts companies in a position to compete for capital based off of virtue signaling rather than the metrics that are relevant in capital markets.

I ask my friends on the other side of the aisle: How does this move the needle for everyday Americans? Does disclosing diversity quotas and carbon emissions impacts, does that promote efficiency in the market? I know it does not. And it also doesn't promote capital formation in these markets.

This mandate only promotes what we have seen from this Congress and the administration, an out-of-touch and misguided political agenda. This is nothing more than liberal fascism, yet another way to push a social agenda in our capital markets. This bill will essentially create good companies and bad companies, and have their future be based off the opinions of the mob and not their business success.

Just last year, we saw a company like Goya Foods come under fire for its president's affiliation with the Republican Party.

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Mr. DONALDS. Mr. Speaker, the attempt to cancel Goya Foods failed, but it exposed the underbelly of the left's attempt to coerce companies into bending the knee to the extremists in the court of public opinion.

In short, Mr. Speaker, this is a bad bill. It does not promote efficient markets, it destroys them. And it sends our financial markets into a place where we should not go in the United States of America.

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