The Democratic head of state on Monday, March 20, blocked a law brought by the Republican opposition, which aimed to limit responsible investments in pension funds. This is the first time that Joe Biden has used his presidential veto in this way. The text passed by Congress would prohibit pension fund managers from considering environmental, social or governance (ESG) criteria in their financial decisions.
The ban threatens “saving for retirement by making it illegal to factor in risk factors,” Trump said in a statement. “Whoever manages your pension should be able to protect your hard-earned savings, whether Marjorie Taylor Greene likes it or not,” Joe Biden said, referring to an elected official from the hardest wing of the American right. By voting for this text, the Republicans denounced an ideological posture.
After the veto was announced, Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy attacked Joe Biden, “who wants Wall Street to use your hard-earned money not to grow your savings, but to support a far-left political program”.
Republicans managed to pass this law thanks to their very slim majority in the House of Representatives. The text had also been adopted in the Senate, yet controlled by the Democrats, thanks to the rallying of two senators from the presidential party and the absence of three others during the vote. Republican Andy Barr, author of the law, said the targeted measure “politicized Americans’ pension funds and put their pensions at risk”.
The White House immediately indicated that Joe Biden would veto it.
This text, targeting a measure put in place by the US Department of Labor in January, had also been widely criticized by environmental organizations. “Preventing people from taking into account the financial risks associated with climate change, the effects of which they are already feeling, will only serve to undermine their savings”, denounced one of them, the Sierra Club.
