Scorecard 118-1

H. J. Res. 30 would reverse the December 2022 Labor Department rule modifying standards under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to allow retirement-plan fiduciaries to consider environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in making investment decisions and exercising shareholder rights, including when voting on shareholder resolutions and board nominations.

The House passed H. J. Res. 30 on February 28, 2023 by a vote of 216 to 204 (Roll Call 124). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because “woke” ESG policies, which corporations and governments are increasingly embracing, are aligned with the United Nations’ Agenda 2030. The UN’s Agenda 2030 is inherently contrary to the Constitution, and ESG promotes leftist policies including radical environmentalism, gun control, and the LGBT agenda. Plus, the U.S. Constitution does not authorize the federal government to regulate retirement plans.

H. Con. Res. 21 would direct the president to remove U.S. armed forces from Syria within 180 days of the adoption of the resolution.

The House rejected the resolution on March 8, 2023 by a vote of 103 to 321 (Roll Call 136). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because the military intervention in Syria was initiated by the president without congressional approval, despite the fact that the power to declare war belongs to Congress.

H.R. 406 would extend provisions of the International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945 to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). If enacted, the United States would formally recognize ASEAN as an international organization, providing for a permanent ASEAN mission to the United States with the same diplomatic immunities and privileges enjoyed by other foreign embassies.

The House passed H.R. 406 on March 23, 2023 by a vote of 388 to 33 (Roll Call 148). We have assigned pluses to the nays because ASEAN is a political and economic union, as opposed to an individual sovereign nation. Providing a permanent ASEAN mission in the United States with the same privileges and immunities as embassies further accelerates globalist designs of collectivizing nations into regional unions rather than dealing with them as individual sovereign states. Furthermore, two of the 10 member-states that comprise ASEAN officially have Marxist-Leninist governments: the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. This resolution expands U.S. relations with the communist regimes that oppress those two nations and that heavily influence the policies of the ASEAN union.

During consideration of an education-policy bill (H.R. 5), Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) offered an amendment to express the sense of Congress that the authority of the Department of Education “to operate or administer any office or program related to elementary or secondary education should be terminated on or before December 31, 2023.”

The House rejected Massie’s amendment on March 24, 2023 by a vote of 161 to 265 (Roll Call 156). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because education is not the role of government, let alone among the limited and specified powers enumerated for Congress in Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. A child’s education is the responsibility of, as well as a fundamental right of choice retained by, his or her parents. Forcing American citizens to furnish taxpayer money for a compulsory, failing, and government-run K-12 school system violates their individual liberties.

H.R. 3746, titled the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, would suspend the debt limit through January 1, 2025 and create caps on “discretionary” spending for fiscal years 2024 and 2025. In fiscal 2024, defense spending would increase three percent, to $886.4 billion, and nondefense spending would decrease five percent, to $703.7 billion; both limits would increase by one percent for fiscal 2025. Among multiple other provisions, H.R. 3746 would provide $44.8 billion for the veterans’ toxic exposure fund and $22 billion for a Commerce Department fund, rescind $27.7 billion in unspent federal Covid-related funds, rescind $1.4 billion of the $79.3 billion provided in 2022 for IRS enforcement, enact time limits on environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, and raises the age of SNAP work requirements for able-bodied individuals to 55 while exempting certain other groups. Furthermore, the bill requires discretionary spending to decrease by one percent if Congress fails to enact on-time appropriations legislation for fiscal years 2024 and 2025. In an April 28, 2023 op-ed opposing a previous iteration of the bill, Representative Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) stated, “Going off the cliff at the Republicans’ 60-mph or the Democrats’ 80-mph results in the same thing: A horrific crash.”

The House passed H.R. 3746 on May 31, 2023 by a vote of 314 to 117 (Roll Call 243). We have assigned pluses to the nays because continuing reckless spending and debt accumulation will result in economic catastrophe, and most federal spending is for programs not authorized by the Constitution.