Guiding Uniform and Responsible Disclosure Requirements and Information Limits Act of 2023

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. VARGAS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill.

As co-chairman of the Congressional Sustainable Investment Caucus, I am glad to join Ranking Member Waters and other colleagues here to talk about protecting the freedom to invest.

Americans want their pensions and retirement savings to be invested responsibly.

Additionally, recent studies have shown that 80 percent of investors want to invest in companies that consider climate risks, diversity hiring, and employee welfare.

That is 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 hardworking Americans.

However, 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.

Mr. Speaker, the bill we are voting on today would make it more difficult for investors to maximize the returns on your retirement savings.

Why?

It is because House leadership is trying to make it more difficult to consider risk factors that 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 and profitable investment practices.

Mr. Speaker, 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 pension and retirement savings, not force them into shortsighted, riskier investments.

I know that giving responsible investors more information is a good thing. It is not a bad thing.

Evidence shows that bills targeting sustainable business practices directly harm taxpayers, investors, and hardworking Americans' retirement funds.

We should be giving investors the information they need to continue growing pensions and retirement funds. This bill would do the opposite.

Mr. Speaker, what was interesting in the introduction and the comments so far is 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 have done such a good job that we saw the Dow Jones shoot past 40,000 points and now over 42,000 points.

Why?

It is because they are doing a good job. It is because they are giving the information to the investors that the investors want, and they are making good decisions.

However, they, again, want to burn the books when it comes to information.

Is this America?

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition, and I thank the leader, again, for yielding me time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source