TALLAHASSEE, Florida (LifeSiteNews) – Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a formal ban on so-called “environmental, social, and corporate governance” (ESG) standards influencing state pension funds, strengthening previous executive actions and building on the governor’s vow to make the Sunshine State the place “where woke goes to die.”
HB 3 establishes that officials responsible for investing state and local government funds must make their decisions strictly on what is “expected to have a material effect on the risk or returns of an investment based on appropriate investment horizons consistent with applicable investment objectives and funding policy,” and “may not subordinate the interests of the people of this state to other objectives, including sacrificing investment return or undertaking additional investment risk to promote any nonpecuniary factor,” such as “the furtherance of any social, political, or ideological interests.”
The law also forbids banks and other financial institutions from denying services to individuals on the basis of their political views or religious beliefs, forbids public bond issuers from partnering with entities that use ESG, bans state and local government entities from considering political or cultural views in evaluating potential vendors, and disqualifies activist banks as Qualified Public Depositories.
HB 3 is meant to curb the proliferation of ESG scoring systems in the financial sector, which incentivizes investing in companies not on the basis of their performance for customers and shareholders but rather on their fealty to so-called “social justice” principles such as diversity and environmentalism. ESG is one of the reasons why so many companies in recent years have attempted to influence public policy on issues such as homosexuality, transgenderism, race relations, and abortion.
“We want to have an economy that’s based on value. That’s based on the best interests of beneficiaries if you’re talking about a pension fund,” DeSantis said, Florida’s Voice reported. “We don’t want to have an economy in which these businesses are taking all these positions on political issues or using shareholder assets to advance an ideological agenda.”
Pushers of ESG “are driving up our cost. They undermine our national security,” agreed Republican state House Speaker Paul Renner. “They hijack the democracy because no matter how we vote in an election, they’re going to force these companies to go in a leftward direction.”
The new law codifies into statue actions taken last year by the DeSantis administration, including an anti-ESG resolution by the State Board of Administration. He is also leading an alliance of 19 states collectively “leverag[ing] our state pension funds to force change in how major asset managers invest the money of hardworking Americans, ensuring corporations are focused on maximizing shareholder value, rather than the proliferation of woke ideology.”
The move is among the latest in DeSantis’ proactive conservative record that has generated substantial interest in him for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. The governor has not yet announced his candidacy but is expected to in the coming weeks, having just concluded an ambitious legislative session featuring conservative legislation on abortion, education, crime, transgenderism, and more.
Former President Donald Trump currently leads national polls for the GOP nomination by a substantial margin, though DeSantis enjoys a fundraising advantage and remains competitive in state polls. Both Trump and DeSantis currently lead Biden in national head-to-head matchups (DeSantis by a slightly wider margin), though a number of polls show Biden beating Trump but losing to DeSantis in swing states.