Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Huizenga for the time on the floor today. Mr. Speaker, I would say to my friends on the other side of the aisle: We are not debating climate change here. We are debating the proper way to financially disclose risks on financial statements of companies that may or may not experience impact from climate change. No one is over here denying about climate. We are here talking about what the right way is to do this. And H.R. 1187 is not the right way to do climate disclosure on behalf of taxpayers, shareholders, and employees of public companies. I have spent the better part of four decades in leadership in both public and private companies, and I have been engaged throughout those years in calling for quality corporate governance practices. I can say with absolute authority that mandating these disclosures as outlined in H.R. 1187 is not only not necessary but would be expensive and lead to increased litigation costs. As my colleagues have already said, the information is already to be disclosed if it meets the materiality standard. The idea of materiality has been refined over many decades, and it is what makes our capital markets the envy of the world. As Justice Marshall stated in the Supreme Court opinion from 1976: ``Some information is of such dubious significance that insistence on its disclosure may accomplish more harm than good. . . . If the standard of materiality is unnecessarily low . . .…”