Days like today are why the labor movement fought so hard to elect President Biden. No modern American president has done more to advance the causes of working people, which was made even more evident today by the use of Biden’s veto power to stop Congress’ attempt to roll back a DOL rule concerning environmental, social and governance (ESG). This rule allows private sector retirement investors to consider critical factors when making investment and proxy voting decisions. 

The choices made by workers’ pension funds are critical to the retirement security of millions of working families. So instead of putting the retirement security of working people first, some members of Congress chose to prioritize political posturing and culture wars over people’s pocketbooks. 

While some politicians want to claim that ESG standards are a way for investors to force a ‘woke’ agenda on Americans’ retirement investment strategies, their politicized strategy is entirely false, ill-informed and just plain wrong. By using reality-based considerations when investing our hard-earned dollars, investors using an ESG lens are doing something their critics refuse to do; deal in reality, not rhetoric.    

In his first veto since becoming president, Biden made the right call. He sent a strong and emphatic message to legislators that ESG factors should be left to the professionals, not the politicians.