Erin Houchin: “As a member of the House Financial Services Committee, a member of the ESG Working Group, and the Representative of the…”

“As a member of the House Financial Services Committee, a member of the ESG Working Group, and the Representative of the Ninth District of Indiana, I can say with certainty that we need the Securities and Exchange Commission to be transparent and accountable to the American people. In my work with committee, one issue I have been particularly focused on is the shareholder proposal process. In the current system, activists can persistently resubmit similar far-left proposals year after year despite those proposals being previously rejected by a majority of shareholders. This shift in focus toward advancing environmental, social, and political policies distracts from the primary purpose of our public markets which is to enable companies to raise capital, foster economic growth, and provide a return on investment for everyday investors. The SEC's recent proposals would make this problem worse by allowing more and more politically motivated shareholder proposals to be considered. This busy work provides no benefit to business. So why would we allow these already decided upon political topics to plague our boardrooms? It is simply not fair to companies, including the ones across my district, to have to continuously invest resources in fighting or litigating activist proposals that clearly do not benefit the company or its shareholders, especially when similar proposals have already been rejected. The SEC proposals defy logic and sound investment strategy.…”