President Joe Biden passed his first veto on Monday.
The veto ended a measure that would ban the government from using possible lawsuits and environmental impacts when making investment decisions about Americans' retirement plans.
"The legislation passed by the Congress would put at risk the retirement savings of individuals across the country. They couldn't take into consideration investments that would be impacted by climate, impacted by overpaying executives," Biden said in a video released by the White House. "And that's why I decided to veto it."
The Trump-era policy banned retirement plan managers from factoring situations regarding climate and social issues into investment decisions -- so-called "ESG" investing, which stands for "environmental, social and governance."
In a statement, the White House said the bill disregards the principles of free markets and jeopardizes the life savings of working families and retirees.
Vetoing the bill "allows retirement plan fiduciaries to make fully informed investment decisions by considering all relevant factors that might impact a prospective investment, while ensuring that investment decisions made by retirement plan fiduciaries maximize financial returns for retirees," the White House said.
In announcing the veto, the president took a swipe at Republicans.
"This bill would risk your retirement savings by making it illegal to consider risk factors MAGA House Republicans don't like," Biden said on Twitter. "Your plan manager should be able to protect your hard-earned savings — whether Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene likes it or not."
The White House added that "retirement plan fiduciaries should be able to consider any factor that maximizes financial returns for retirees across the country. That is not controversial — that is common sense."
In response, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Biden is sending a message that he "wants Wall Street to use your retirement savings to fund his far-left political causes."
"In his first veto, Biden just sided with woke Wall Street over workers. Tells you exactly where his priorities lie," the California Republican wrote on Twitter. "Now — despite a bipartisan vote to block his ESG agenda — it's clear Biden wants Wall Street to use your retirement savings to fund his far-left political causes."
Greene also responded to the president's tweet, saying "No one has put our retirement at risk more than you, Joe. American families can't count on checks from China to pay their rent and groceries like your family does."
Greene was referring to a report from the House Oversight Committee that shows relatives of Biden received $1.3 million between 2015 and 2017 from an associate with ties to China. According to the report, Biden's son, daughter-in-law, brother, and another unidentified member of the family received payments while he was serving as vice president and shortly thereafter. The report noted that an investigation is still trying to determine "what services the Biden family members provided to the China company and when those purported services were provided."
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