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Floor Speech

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Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, I am here to speak about the Congressional Review Act that the Senate and House passed this week on a bipartisan basis and particularly about the President's decision to veto that Congressional Review Act.

Now, protecting Americans' property is what government should do-- period; end of story. The American people deserve to know that the property that they invest in for their retirement is going to go to its highest, best use; that the person managing that money is going to make sure they maximize the return so that the couple, the family, the individual investing in that retirement is making the wisest decisions for their future.

Instead, President Biden's new environmental and social governance rule authorizes those who manage that money to prioritize President Biden's political agenda over the long-term financial health of the retirement fund of that fellow American. Think about that. It isn't what is best for their retirement, in their golden years when they are 65, 70, when they have to retire. It is what President Biden wishes to do now as a political agenda. He is willing to jeopardize the retirement of the 152 million Americans who are planning for their future to fulfill his political goal.

Now, it is easy to speak about 152 million people. Let's bring it down to the young couple. They are 28 years old. They just had their first child. They are feeling responsible. They are feeling like they need to put money aside so that--my gosh, it seems so far away--when they retire, they have taken care of their financial future.

And they read the literature. If the return on my investment is 1 percent more, I have a much better life. If it is 0.5 or 1 percent less, I have not as good of a life because that is the power of compounding. Over that long period of time, that little bit of extra which continues to compound makes the difference sometimes between having to continue to work and the ability to buy the RV, take off west, and to see the Grand Canyon. That is kind of putting a human face upon this. Congress knew that.

When the President said that he was going to endorse this rule-- promulgated it, if you will, put it out there--that told the asset managers, ``Don't prioritize the best return on the investment; prioritize what we tell you is the better way to invest the dollars for our political goals,'' Congress voted on a bipartisan basis to end this ESG rule and to stand up for that American worker and that American family who are diligently saving and depend upon the best rate of return to securely retire.

Now, instead of joining Congress and supporting the workers, protecting their retirement, the President announced he will veto the effort. Oh, he doesn't say that he is going to do it to hurt their long-term retirement plans, but that is absolutely what it does. It puts window dressing around it: He is saving the planet. You name this; you name that. He is hurting their retirement plan, and he knows it, but that is of secondary importance to him.

Now, by the way, for Louisiana energy workers, this is more than a betrayal of their retirement. It weaponizes their retirement accounts not just against their future but also against their present. Those energy workers who are helping to produce the natural gas and the oil that is fueling our modern economy, that is helping to send natural gas overseas to Europe so that they can better withstand the financial and the energy pressure exerted by Russia over their economies, they are going to be hurt because this ESG rule will tell these financial institutions not to put as much capital into the development of this essential oil and natural gas for both our economy, for our European allies, and, by the way, for natural gas, in terms of helping to decrease global carbon emissions, and--did I say it--for the retirement accounts of these workers.

It is another effort by Washington, DC, Democrats to dismantle America's energy economy, which has the byproduct--the very unfortunate byproduct, I suppose--of killing the jobs of millions of Americans.

Those investment managers helping to plan the retirement of these workers should help these workers achieve their best retirement plans. That is not necessarily the goal of the Biden administration. It is not necessarily the goal of academia or the environmental activists. But it is the savers' money; it is not Joe Biden's.

There is still time for the President to rethink his veto threat. The President says he is for supporting workers. Then show it. He says he is for those who do less well in our economy. Then show it. This ESG policy will make things worse for them. Don't veto. Allow it to go through.

Supporting American workers means supporting their jobs now and supporting their retirement savings. I urge him to sign this bill.

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