Consideration of Certain Resolutions Reported By the Committee on Rules

Floor Speech

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Mr. HUIZENGA. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding time and his leadership on this.

Madam Speaker, every day capital markets are under attack here with this Securities and Exchange Commission.

The climate disclosure rule, which was released in March of this year totals over 500 pages--over 500 pages--and includes over 1,000 technical footnotes. And oh, by the way, the SEC initially gave everybody 30 days to comment on that--30 days. Now, you can't even get through the analysis of the original 500 pages much less the 1,000 technical footnotes on that within those 30 days. But in reality the SEC doesn't really know what this far-reaching rule will cost small, independent, and nonpublic businesses across our country.

In fact, very deep in the summary of the rule the SEC admits:

In many cases, we are unable to reliably quantify the potential benefits and costs of the rule and, therefore, we encourage commenters to provide us with relevant data or empirical evidence that would allow us to do so.

Let that sink in: We have no idea what the impact is, so why don't you just give us some data to help us work through this? Now, I remind you, this is not a study, and this is not research. This is a finalized proposed rule that the SEC is trying to jam through in 30 days.

Oh, but they expanded that now, so thank you very much. Now, there are three basic rules on real estate.

What is the most important part about real estate?

Location, location, location.

Well, for the SEC it should be materiality, materiality, materiality.

How is this information material to a publicly traded company and to the investors who are investing and putting their hard-earned money into those companies.

So materiality, materiality, materiality should be the battle cry. But it is not with this SEC.

In fact, in recent months, the Commission has put forth a huge volume of additional proposals. At times it doesn't appear to be fully informed about the likely economic consequences of the proposed rules and that display significant misunderstandings of the activity the Commission seeks to regulate. So without proper economic analysis, mistakes and unintended consequences are going to be inevitable.

Madam Speaker, since late last year, the SEC has embarked on a remarkable rulemaking agenda. In the 14 months since he was sworn into office, Chair Gensler has charted a path for the SEC unlike it has seen in its 88-year history. To be charitable, he is pushing the envelope.

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Mr. HUIZENGA. To be charitable, this aggressive stance of the chair is unprecedented. The reality is they can't get their agenda done through the legislative process, so they are just going to regulate it. So the SEC is going to continue to push the boundaries of the statutory authority Congress has given them.

Unfortunately, instead of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation-- that is part of their three-part directive, facilitating capital formation--they are actually going to regulate small, privately held companies in your district right out of business.

So Congress did not establish the SEC to set climate policy nor for it to be the final arbiter of businesses' strategies to combat climate change. In her recent dissent over the proposed rule, Commissioner Hester Peirce rightfully noted that the SEC is not the securities and environment commission.

My colleagues and I have grave concerns that this rule will set a precedent that will allow regulators to expand their authorities far beyond the bounds of the law. In fact, we have seen some recent Supreme Court cases about that with the EPA. The proposed climate rule shifts the SEC's rulemaking authority--to be charitable--taking a novel, activist approach to climate policy.

What is next?

All of it. Frankly, that is what is on his agenda: all of it. They want all of it. That is their idea of how this economy ought to be running, not how to protect investors, not how to facilitate efficient markets, and certainly not how to build capital. That is not the job of the SEC that has been proposed here.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support Mr. Hill's resolution and restore sanity to the rulemaking process.

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