(Washington) Joe Biden made use of his presidential veto for the first time on Monday, rejecting a law carried by the Republican opposition limiting responsible investments in pension funds.
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 making it illegal to take taking risk factors into account.
With this law targeting a measure put in place by the US Department of Labor in January, which facilitates this type of investment in pension funds, the Republicans denounced an ideological posture.
“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.
PHOTO SARAH SILBIGER, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Republican MP Marjorie Taylor Greene
The 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, had estimated that the measure targeted “politicized the pension funds of Americans and put their pensions in danger”.
The White House immediately indicated that Joe Biden would veto it.
This text rejected on Monday 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.