ESG Disclosure Simplification Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

This amendment is designed to highlight the impact that increased taxes have on companies and their workforce.

Like many Members of this body, I owned my own business prior to being elected to Congress. I know firsthand what it takes to make a payroll, expand your business, keep the lights on. Running a business takes the owner's blood, sweat, and tears to succeed, but it also requires capital. Heavier taxes can have significant impacts on a company's operation, certainly a company's access to capital and their overall fiscal health.

If we are to follow the premise of this bill, that investors need the Federal Government to mandate the disclosure of immaterial information, then the impact of tax hikes must be included. That is why I am offering this amendment.

This amendment would require publicly traded companies that pay Federal taxes to disclose the effects of any future U.S. corporate tax increases. Specifically, the company must calculate and disclose the difference between the amount in taxes it would have paid under laws in effect on June 1, 2021, and the actual amount paid after the taxes were increased.

Additionally, the company must acknowledge in writing which President signed the higher taxes into law.

Finally, the company must specify the decreased amount of capital that it now has to pay its workforce, reinvest in the company, or return capital to shareholders.

So I do want to be clear. I am opposed to Congress forcing disclosure of immaterial information, as H.R. 1187 would require. But if Congress is going to require companies to disclose other immaterial information, then it is only appropriate for Congress to require the disclosure of the effects of higher taxes. Requiring disclosures of certain tax- related information will not provide the whole picture without also looking at the impact of tax hikes.

If we are forcing disclosure of all this tax-related information that we have heard the Democrats propose, then why shouldn't investors know exactly and plainly how a President's tax increase bill impacts the bottom line of the companies, those same companies in which they have invested their life savings?

As our economy continues to recover from the pandemic, the public deserves to know how these policies, good and bad, would impact economic growth and their livelihoods.

Since Congressional Democrats are insistent in using this legislation to push their agenda on social changes and climate change, then I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, as it will tell investors a more complete story.

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Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Look, I am not enthusiastic about Congress forcing disclosure of immaterial information. But if we are going to do it, if we are going to do it, then, at the very least, we should be honest. And to the extent tax increases are going to harm the company's ability to invest in its workers and invest in itself, we should disclose that as well.

Look, there was a time where corporate inversions were a big problem in this country. You haven't heard of corporate inversions since December of 2017, and the reason was because the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made it unnecessary for companies to take their dollars and their jobs overseas. So now those dollars and those jobs stay for American workers.

After the passage of the American Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, actual revenues to the Treasury rose. And had it not been for the imposition of the pandemic, those tax cuts would have been paid for because the Congressional Budget Office assigned a very anemic rate of growth to their projections when they cited the CBO score prior to that bill's passage.

This is an important concept. If we are going to level immaterial information into a company's disclosures, let's disclose what happens when Congress applies additional tax rates to those companies as well. It is the right thing to do.

I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment. It is the only thing that can make the underlying bill perhaps make a little more sense.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

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