DES MOINES, IOWA (January 27, 2023) — Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird joined Utah Attorney General Sean D Reyes and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a 25-state coalition lawsuit over a US Department of Labor rule which would affect the retirement accounts of hundreds of millions of Americans.
The rule would allow pension-plan managers to direct their clients’ money to Environmental Social Governance (ESG) investments and violate longstanding pension protections enacted under the law. That law protects Americans’ retirement savings and requires that people with pensions and 401K’s be provided plan information.
“Millions of Americans are seeing their hard-earned retirement savings put at risk due to the Biden Administration’s reckless agenda.” said AG Bird. “Americans spend a lifetime working and saving for their retirement. They don’t deserve political agendas illegally driving investment decisions that cost them money.”
The new rule, “Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights,” will take effect on January 30, 2023. Two-thirds of the US population’s retirement-savings accounts would be affected, totaling $12 trillion in assets. This avoids existing strict laws intended to protect retirement savings from unnecessary risk.
The lawsuit seeks to protect pensions by keeping the existing rules that require investment management to focus on investing rather than on social justice or climate change. Also, the lawsuit seeks to bring back transparency that the new Biden rule eliminated.
The 25 states joining this lawsuit led by Attorneys General Reyes and Paxton are: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Read a copy of the complaint here.
