Sen. Tim Scott's efforts to overturn a Securities and Exchange Commission climate disclosure rule has attracted one Democrat as a backer: West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin.
Scott, R-S.C., launched his Congressional Review Act resolution Wednesday, allowing Congress to use an expedited process to vote down administrative rules, reports The Washington Examiner.
The move comes after the SEC voted 3-2 to adopt a rule setting requirements about how and what companies must report to their investors how their operations impact the climate.
Among the requirements is that large and mid-sized companies must report all emissions of greenhouse gases, with an outside party to audit the reports.
The resolution has 34 co-sponsors, including Manchin, giving it enough for a discharge petition and to give Scott's legislation a bipartisan backing so it will be more likely to reach President Joe Biden's desk.
The SEC's rule is "federal outreach at its worst," and "threatens economic opportunity across the country," Scott said in a statement.
"Over and over again, SEC Chair [Gary] Gensler has disregarded the real-world impacts of his aggressive regulatory agenda in his dogged pursuit of left-wing political priorities," he added. "This rule is no exception."
Through the Congressional Review Act, resolutions can be brought to the Senate floor without being stopped by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, where it could pass with the help of Manchin and another centrist, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.
The Republican-controlled House would also likely approve the vote.
Biden, however, is likely to veto the measure, as he has when other Congressional Review Act resolutions slipped a Senate vote.
But Scott said that the SEC is missing its mission with its ruling.
"The SEC’s mission is to regulate our capital markets and ensure all Americans can safely share in their economic success, not to force a partisan climate agenda on American businesses," he said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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