ESG Disclosure Simplification Act of 2021

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. VARGAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support the Corporate Governance Improvement and Investor Protection Act. I particularly thank Chairwoman Waters for her support of the environmental, social, and governance metrics. Her efforts have been heroic, and I appreciate it very, very much.

Mr. Speaker, when we talk about investors, we are not only talking about large, wealthy institutions. We are talking about teachers. We are talking about people who are working hard for their money. We are also talking about nonprofessional investors who have found in the stock market a way to build their savings toward, for example, homeownership, college tuition, and retirement. When we are talking about investors, we are also talking about pension funds that hold many hardworking Americans' retirement savings.

When a company engages in practices that put its business at risk, it also risks the funds these investors have entrusted with it.

That is why the SEC requires public companies to disclose material information, meaning information that a reasonable investor needs in order to make a voting decision or decide whether to continue investing in that company. Mandated and standard disclosures of environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, metrics would provide improved insight into long-term business performance and areas of potential future risks.

These metrics are material to investors and central to their protection. Together, I and my colleagues have worked to write legislation that would ensure such protection. My bill--the first in the package--requires the SEC to mandate standard ESG disclosures.

My colleagues' bills require reporting on specific ESG metrics that investors have been advocating for over many years. I applaud Representatives Foster, Velazquez, Casten, and Axne for their legislation.

Additionally, I thank Chair Gensler for his advocacy that investors' voices are central to materiality.

I have to say, climate change is real, and we have to take it seriously. It is not a Member of this House or the other House taking a snowball, throwing it, and saying: See, there is no climate change.

Climate change is real. Look at what happened in Texas this summer. They were begging for energy because they were not prepared because of climate change. They were melting snow in their bathtubs so they could flush their toilets.

If you take a look at what is happening out in the West today: drought, the unfortunate reality that we face the risk of catastrophic fires.

All of this is climate change, and it is about time that we take this very, very seriously as a country.

Some companies already do this. They already disclose the ESG metrics. That is why it is important to have an equal playing field where all companies disclose.

Again, I thank Chairwoman Waters for her heroic efforts here. I also thank my colleagues.

I urge my colleagues on the other side: Take climate change for real. Accept that it is happening. It is real, and it is catastrophic. And we must take it seriously.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source