For the first time… Biden uses the presidential Veto against a Republican law proposal

On Monday, US President Joe Biden used, for the first time in his era, a presidential veto against a proposal for a law submitted by the Republicans that limits the ability of pension funds to make investments that take into account environmental and social standards and good governance.

“The legislation would have jeopardized retirement savings by making it illegal to consider risk factors,” Biden said in a tweet.

I just vetoed my first bill, President Biden wrote on Twitter.

This bill would risk your retirement savings by making it illegal to consider risk factors MAGA House Republicans don’t like.

Your plan manager should be able to protect your hard-earned savings — whether Rep. Marjorie Taylor

The far-right in the Republican Party opposes this, and considers so-called responsible investments to be politically intrusive.

Biden stressed that savings plan managers should be able to protect hard-earned savings, whether Representative Marjorie Taylor Green likes it or not, referring to the congresswoman who is considered one of the most prominent figures of the far-right wing in the Republican Party.

Republicans took advantage of their narrow majority in the House of Representatives to pass this legislation.

Although the Democrats enjoyed a slim majority in the Senate, the absence of 3 senators from the voting session and the addition of two others to the Republicans was sufficient to approve the legislation and refer it to the president for his signature, which Biden countered by using his right to veto laws.

After the presidential veto, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy criticized Biden, saying that he wants Wall Street to use the hard-earned money to support a political program of the radical left, not to increase savings.

He added, “This matter would harm the elderly and working people, especially after President Biden’s reckless spending led to record inflation and a rapid increase in interest rates”.

Joe Manchin, a senator from mining-rich West Virginia who has previously torpedoed many of the president’s climate and social ambitions, called the veto infuriating.

“Despite the clear bipartisan rejection in Congress of the Labor Department measure, President Biden has chosen to base his administration’s progressive agenda on the welfare of the American people, the senator said.

Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate Pension Committee, said the sole priority for asset managers should be to help Americans get the most out of their retirement.

He added, “President Biden, by using his veto against this bipartisan decision, is endangering the retirement of 152 million Americans”.

In November, the Biden administration’s Labor Department reactivated a measure that abolished a measure by former US President Donald Trump’s administration that penalized fund managers who take climate change into account when making their decisions.

On the other hand, the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Senator Chuck Schumer, considered that the presidential veto is quite appropriate.

Schumer criticized the House Republicans’ consideration of imposing restrictions on American companies in their pursuit of profits as counterproductive and un-American.

Supporters of the legislation argue that responsible investment factors are determined by left-wing social concerns and should not be part of financial dealings.

Democrats consider that it has nothing to do with politics how to take into account the factors of responsible investment as long as the investment funds meet their obligations to their beneficiaries.

And major investment companies, such as Black Rock, welcomed the Biden administration’s decision, which it saw as a financial payment to investors with concerns about climate risks.