During a House Appropriations Committee hearing before the congressional recess, Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) questioned SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins about climate change rules held by the SEC.
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00:00offer for any questions he has. Thank you, Chair, Ranking Member, and thank you,
00:05Mr. Ivey. Appreciate that. Thank you, Chairman Atkins, for being here today. This disastrous
00:10SEC climate disclosure rule propagated by former Chair Gensler would have required public
00:16companies to disclose climate-related information and registration statements and annual reports.
00:21The initial rule would have required companies to not only disclose their direct and indirect
00:26emissions from purchased energy, but also all indirect emissions occurring throughout an
00:31organization's value chain, also known as Scope 3 emissions. This reckless rule falls far outside
00:38the boundaries of the Commission's statutory authority. The SEC is a market regulator, as you
00:44know, not a climate regulator. So, Chair Atkins, the SEC has recently stated its ending defense of the
00:50rule. If you are no longer defending this rule in court, would you consider fully repealing it? Why
00:57or why not? Well, thank you, Congressman. Well, I think, you know, everything is, you know, under
01:04review in that respect, and the Eighth Circuit, where there is these various lawsuits have been
01:12consolidated, has posed some questions to us, you know, with respect to what our plans are. So, we will
01:19be coming out. I'm actively talking to the staff and to my colleagues about, you know, the way
01:25forward. And one thing I do want to hasten to add is that, you know, the climate rule that was
01:31promulgated by the SEC last year is just one thing that affects American companies. You should just do
01:37not lose sight of the fact that in Europe there is the corporate sustainability due diligence directive and
01:44other aspects that will affect, it has extraterritorial effect that will affect American companies. And
01:53that's hotly under debate in Europe right now. And I'm concerned about that as well. So, please keep
01:59that on your radar. But just yesterday, I think Friedrich Merz in Germany came out with, you know, some
02:07statements about the dangers of that CSDD. But in general, do you support the SEC climate disclosure rule?
02:13No, I've been, before I got there, I've been publicly critical of it. So, you know, I share your
02:21concern about everything that you and Congresswoman Henson were talking about. So, the House Financial
02:28Services Committee's portion of the one big beautiful bill contains a provision that would
02:31transfer the public company accounting oversight boards authority directly to the SEC. This follows
02:36the Biden administration's blatant politicalization of the PCAOB by voting along partisan lines to remove
02:42former Chair Dunkey and filling all five board seats with handpicked Democrat cronies. How would
02:49moving the PCAOB directly into the SEC make them more accountable to us in Congress and prevent
02:55future politicization of the board's authority? Well, thank you, Congressman. The, well, obviously,
03:03that is up to you all in Congress to decide what to do with the public company accounting oversight board.
03:10It's a creature of Dodd-Frank. And so, I, you know, we'll obviously accommodate whatever you all decide.
03:16I, as I mentioned earlier, I think, you know, we are fully capable of taking on those duties that the
03:24PCAOB does. And obviously, we would need resources to do that. But, you know, the, you know, the, we'll be
03:33looking, obviously, at, at all of this as time goes on this, this year. Consolidated audit trail or CAAT's
03:38requirements for brokers to submit investors personally, personally identifiable information is pretty
03:44concerning. We all know our federal financial regulators, uh, abysmal record of protecting American
03:49sensitive information. Last year, a rogue CFPB employee made an unauthorized transfer of sensitive records. Um, will you
03:57commit to reviewing whether continued investment in the CAAT is justified given what's been going on?
04:02Absolutely. I assure your concern on, on those various points. And, uh, so we will, uh, we'll, we will
04:11review, um, where we stand with, uh, cons, consolidated audit trail, its costs and, uh, vulnerabilities.
04:17Well, thank you, Chair, for being here. And I yield back.
04:20Thank you, sir. And with that, we're out of time. Just kidding, Mr. Ivy. Calm down.
04:27Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Maryland.