“ESG Month” begins in the U.S. House of Representatives

Buckle up!  The House Financial Services Committee begins a series of hearings on ESG this morning, in what is being referred to as “ESG month.”  Six hearings will be held over the next few weeks, followed by a Committee vote later in the month on Republican-sponsored bills that will seek to limit ESG.  

Particular areas of focus will include:

• Shareholder proposals
• Proxy advisory firms
• Proxy voting
• Fiduciary duties
• Climate change
• the impact of EU sustainability reporting
• Due diligence requirements on U.S. companies

See our earlier client alerts for a discussion of the May and June hearings.

The Memorandum to the members of the House Financial Services Committee from the Committee staff frames the tenor of the discussion that will occur and the goal of the hearings: “The federal government’s focus on costly non-material environmental, social, and political issues at the expense of sound financial regulation has troubling consequences.”

Representative Katie Porter (D-California) at the June hearing said: “Please God, let there not be a Part III.” Clearly her prayers were not answered.

The Ropes & Gray ESG team is intently following the hearings, as well as all the parallel state-level developments.