House Bill to Block SEC Climate Disclosure Rule
Discover more from Net Zero by 2050
House Bill to Block SEC Climate Disclosure Rule
House Republicans have introduced a bill that would limit the ability of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to establish additional disclosure requirements for public companies, including those laid out in the agency's proposed climate-disclosure rule.
The Mandatory Materiality Requirement Act of 2022, introduced Dec. 2 by Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., and Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., would insert statutory language into the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require that when imposing a disclosure obligation, the SEC must determine that,
Whenever pursuant to this title the Commission is engaged in rule-making regarding disclosure obligations of issuers, the Commission may impose a disclosure requirement on an issuer only if the Commission expressly determines that there is a substantial likelihood that a reasonable investor of the issuer would consider the information disclosed to the Commission under the requirement to be important with respect to an investment decision regarding the issuer.
The proposed bill does not mention greenhouse gas emissions explicitly. But it would require the SEC to show that the climate-disclosure rule meets materiality criteria.
Rep. Huizenga stated that this bill would prohibit the SEC from expanding beyond securities law and the authority granted to it by Congress.