© Reuters. Biden issues first veto of his term to protect an investment rule
Washington, March 20 (.).- The President of the United States, Joe Biden, issued the first veto of his term on Monday to block an initiative promoted by the Republicans that sought to revoke a regulation on pension fund investments.
In a statement, the president stressed that the Labor Department regulation that Republicans want to eliminate protects the savings and pensions of tens of thousands of workers and retirees in the country.
“It allows pension plan trustees to make well-informed decisions about their investments, evaluating all relevant factors that may affect a future investment,” Biden said.
The Biden administration has in the past issued a rule that pension fund managers can take into account the climate crisis and other environmental, social and governance factors on behalf of their clients when deciding where to invest.
This regulation replaced another from the era of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) that discouraged taking these factors into account.
The proposal to revoke the rule of the Biden Government was approved by the Lower House, controlled by the Republicans, and by the Senate, in the hands of the Democrats.
Biden specified in his note that there is “ample evidence” that environmental, social and governance factors can have a material impact on markets, industry and business.
He considered that the initiative presented by the conservatives would have forced pension fund managers to ignore high risk factors, such as climate change or poor corporate governance.
Republicans criticize that kind of regulation because, in their opinion, it infringes on the right of Americans to make their own decisions, and is part of the progressive agenda of the Democrats.
Defenders of the standard maintain that taking these types of factors into account when investing can help people earn money by having a positive impact on the world and avoiding financial risks derived from the climate crisis.