Mississippi treasurer part of group urging Congress to overturn ESG rule

After urging Mississippi's largest public pension fund to reject ESG investment strategies, Mississippi Treasurer David McRae is directing his anti-ESG furor at private-sector retirement plans.

Mr. McRae announced he is joining forces with five other Republican state treasurers, multiple House representatives and almost 100 conservative organizations to block what he describes as the Biden administration's "woke 401(k) rule," a reference to the Department of Labor's ruling in November that allowed the fiduciaries of workplace retirement plans to consider environmental, social and governance risk factors when selecting plan investment options, he said a news release Feb. 8.

Mr. McRae touted a letter that he and the other 100-plus signatories sent to Congress on Feb. 7 exhorting lawmakers to "overturn the Biden administration's dangerous ESG rule" through the Congressional Review Act, a law that allows a new Congress to disapprove of rules issued in the last 60 days of the previous Congress.

"There is a limited lookback period authorized under the CRA, so it is critical that Congress act quickly," the letter said.

Mr. McRae and the other signatories urged Congress to support a joint resolution introduced by Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., and Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., on Feb. 7, that "would block Biden's ERISA rule and protect Americans from dangerous investment management practices."

Their hoped-for reversal of the ESG rule follows President Joe Biden's executive order in January 2021 refusing to enforce a more restrictive ESG rule by the Trump administration.

In their letter, Mr. McRae and the other signatories characterized ESG as a "misappropriation or retirees' savings by money managers for their own political agendas."

"Forcing Americans into ESG investment is not only politically inappropriate, it is also financially irresponsible," they said.

The other state treasurers who signed the letter were Arizona's Kimberly Yee, Indiana's Daniel Elliott, Louisiana's John Schroder, Utah's Marlo Oaks and West Virginia's Riley Moore.

Mr. McRae's crusade against ESG investing is not new. In November, Mr. McRae urged the $30.1 billion Mississippi Public Employees' Retirement System, Jackson, to disavow ESG investment strategies and divest from BlackRock funds.

BlackRock at the time did not have an immediate comment, pointing only to a letter it sent to anti-ESG state attorneys general Sept. 6 in which it denounced "political initiatives that sacrifice pension plans' access to high-quality investments and thereby jeopardize pensioners' financial returns."

"Our job is to maximize financial returns for the more than 18,000 members of the Public Employees' Retirement System," Mr. McRae wrote in a letter to the Mississippi PERS' board members, adding that the state's pension system "is the wrong place to experiment with environment, social, and governance strategies."