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

Floor Speech

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Mr. FITZGERALD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4790.

This bill is an important step toward ensuring the information required to be disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission by issuers be material to voting or investment decisions. It also contains several other measures to push back on activist ESG shareholder proposals.

While shareholder engagement remains an important aspect of corporate governance, the consideration of shareholder proposals that deviate from the company's strategic direction or long-term goals has transformed boardrooms into partisan platforms.

Although the number of shareholder proposals is increasing, support is declining across the board. A 2009 study noted that costs directly incurred by companies due to such proposals were estimated to be about $87,000 per proposal, totaling $90 million annually.

The Performance over Politics Act, which is included in this package, would allow issuers to defer the resubmission of shareholder proposals for 3 years if those proposals are similar in nature.

These thresholds would respect the decisions of the majority of shareholders.

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