Launch Of Financial Services Committee Republican ESG Working Group

On February 3, the Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, Patrick McHenry, announced the establishment of a nine-person Republican ESG Working Group to "combat the threat to our capital markets posed by those on the far-left pushing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) proposals." The group is to be led by Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Bill Huizenga. The press release states that the working group will examine ways to "rein in the SEC's regulatory overreach; reinforce the materiality standard as a pillar of our disclosure regime; and hold to account market participants who misuse the proxy process or their outsized influence to impose ideological preferences in ways that circumvent democratic lawmaking."