Issue Position: Empowering Shareholders

Issue Position

Shareholders who serve on the board of corporations deserve more say in key decisions. I introduced an amendment to reform the way corporations deal with proxy access by empowering the Securities and Exchange Commission to review and report on this issue. Recently, the SEC voted to reform the way proxy access works, so that shareholders can nominate more of their own candidates and offer more of their own proposals.

Shareholders also should have the right to hold those actors accountable who aid and abet corporations in fraud and abuse. Under an agreement with the Senate, I agreed to have the Government Accountability Offices study this issue and author a report detailing the severity of the problem and how we should move forward.

Some credit rating agencies did not conduct objective assessments of the creditworthiness of financial institutions, helping contribute to the economic crisis. An amendment I wrote would help prevent conflict of interest by separating pay for board members of these agencies from the financial performance of the firms they are tasked with assessing.

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