Top Congressional Democrat Defends ‘Woke’ ESG Investing

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, delivers remarks during a Committee meeting in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington on Jan. 31, 2023. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

A top congressional Democrat defended “woke” Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ideology and that investors need to be “watchful and alert to opportunities and risks.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) blasted Republican attacks on ESG at a House Oversight Committee hearing on May 10, saying that it was needed to guide companies in their business decisions.

Republicans nationwide have been attacking the progressive political agenda, arguing that the adoption of ESG by multi-national financial institutions is an attempt by radical foreign elites to impose their views on American society.

Public sentiment has been turning against ESG, with American investors beginning to insist that asset managers focus on company financial returns when making investment decisions over politics.

Raskin used his time to lecture his fellow congressmen on the English language in an attempt to justify ESG principles.

“The word work comes from the Indo-European root ‘weg,’ which means to be strong and alert,” Raskin said, explaining that the word evolved into the modern word vigilance.

“The whole point of being a fiduciary is to be vigilant, watchful and alert to opportunities and risks, and that’s what asset managers, corporate board members and executives do with other people’s money.”

The congressman from Maryland stated that sticking to a non-woke investment strategy “is a negligent and inattentive investment strategy.”

Raskin Defends ESG After Wife’s Nomination to Fed Defeated in 2022

Raskin’s defense of ESG has become a personal mission for him after his wife, Sarah Bloom Raskin, saw her nomination at the Federal Reserve derailed.

She faced strong opposition from Republican senators and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin (D-Va.) over her radical stance on climate-based financial policy.

“The unelected governors of America’s central bank shouldn’t be responsible for dealing with difficult issues like global warming, social justice and education policy,” then-Sen. Pat Toomey (R-La.) said at the confirmation hearing.

Senate Republicans scolded her at her 2022 confirmation hearing over previous comments that she made about the importance of reducing the climate change threat to the health of the American financial system.

In a New York Times op-ed in 2020, Bloom Raskin argued that the Fed should not subsidize fossil fuels over its alleged impact on the climate.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) slammed those comments on climate economic policy during her confirmation hearings, saying that her support for ESG would drive “the oil and gas industry into bankruptcy.”

Republicans Continue to Attack Climate Change Ideology

The Republican-dominated House Oversight Committee called in attorney generals from several states on May 10 to testify on the dangers of ESG in corporate culture.

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes testified that ESG is part of “an open conspiracy to bypass Congress and instead impose costly changes on American consumers using the power of horizontal agreements by key players in our financial system.”

Reyes argued that certain climate goals, like the Paris Climate Agreement’s plan to keep the earth’s temperature as close to 35 degrees Fahrenheit as possible, would cause catastrophic harm to Americans’ livelihoods.

He warned that implementation of climate change goals “would impact everything from how we grow our food and what we eat to how we power our homes and businesses and even what kind of cars we are allowed to purchase.”

Another critic, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, called the ideology a “clear and present danger to consumers and to our democracy. An unelected cabal of global elites is using ESG to hijack our capitalist system, capture corporations and threaten the hard-earned dollars of American workers…

“Ever since the signing of the Paris Agreement, there’s been an open conspiracy to bypass Congress…by key players in our financial system … these organizations seek to use their collective market power to force burdensome changes on American companies,” said Marshall.

Rep. Russell Fry (R-S.C.) accused woke asset managers BlackRock of blatantly ignoring their legal obligations to their customers and shareholders, while his colleague, Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.), explained how the ESG agenda was actively undermining the U.S. on the global stage in favor of Communist China.

As the hearings got heated, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) accidentally blurted out that “[Democrats] aren’t here to put working people above big corporations.”

Pro-ESG Advocate Says Agenda Helps Investors Make Decisions

The only pro-ESG advocate, Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs, was called in by House Democrats to challenge the critics’ allegations.

“We are witnessing a widespread, highly coordinated, politically motivated attack on investors and the hard-working people they serve,” Frerichs told the committee.

“ESG is about looking at a wider range of risks and value opportunities that can have a material financial impact on investment performance.”

For example, Frerichs said that environmentally conscious investors in a car company might want to know “whether that company is aligned with market expectations and preparing for the shift to electric vehicles.”

However, most Republicans said that those concerns were an attack on the beliefs of many Americans who want political language out of their investment portfolios and for companies to stick to doing business.