Joe Biden used his presidential veto for the first time on Monday, rejecting a Republican opposition-backed bill restricting responsible investment in pension funds. The Republicans managed to pass this law thanks to their very narrow majority in the House of Representatives. The text had also passed the Senate, but was controlled by Democrats thanks to the assembly of two senators from the presidential party and the absence of three others from the vote.
Republican Andy Barr, author of the law, had estimated that the targeted measure “politicizes Americans’ retirement funds and jeopardizes their pensions.” The White House immediately indicated that Joe Biden would veto it.
Republicans denounced an ideological stance
The US President said in a statement that the text, which rejects the consideration of environmental, social or governance criteria – dubbed “ESG” – in financial decisions, “threatens saving for retirement by requiring the consideration of risk factors makes illegal. Republicans are denouncing an ideological stance with this law, which targets a measure passed by the US Department of Labor in January that would make this type of investment in pension funds easier. “Whoever manages your pension should be able to protect your hard-earned savings, whether Marjorie Taylor Greene likes it or not,” said Joe Biden, referring to an elected official on the hardest wing of the American right.
This text, which was rejected on Monday, was also widely criticized by environmental organizations. “If people are prevented from considering the financial risks of climate change, the effects of which they are already feeling, their savings will only be eroded,” criticized one of them, the Sierra Club.