The Leader’s Floor Lookout: Thursday, September 19, 2024
Restoring Freedom and the Marketplace of Ideas to American Campuses
American universities and colleges should be a safe space for students to explore ideas, educate themselves on topics they are interested in, and form their own opinions on world issues. Unfortunately, thanks to woke policies, radical faculty members, and partisan administrations, that is no longer the case.
Young people are being denied an open environment to thoughtfully engage with peers and educators and the opportunity to experience the marketplace of ideas in the classroom. Whether it is pressure to adopt their professor’s views for assignments, or intimidation by woke liberal students to stay quiet and not share differing viewpoints, fewer and fewer schools are places of free expression, instead becoming hubs of indoctrination.
Freedom of speech and the other First Amendment rights have come under attack on campuses across the nation. Speakers get shouted down and attacked for sharing views that differ from woke activists, students who speak up against the activist mob are ostracized, and, as we unfortunately saw during the disturbing pro-Palestine campus protests, students were blocked from class or intimidated for being Jewish. This is unacceptable in every sense.
Meanwhile, accrediting agencies are going so far as to require schools to implement woke policies like diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) frameworks and critical race theory, crushing academic freedom on campuses and imposing a one-sided partisan agenda on schools that should have no agenda but education and preparing students to think for themselves.
House Republicans are bringing forward legislation to end wokeness in higher education and restore the American principles of freedom of speech and a competing marketplace of ideas to campuses across the country. This legislation includes Rep. Burgess Owens’ Accreditation for College Excellence Act of 2023 and Rep. Brandon Williams’ Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act.
H.R. 3724, the End Woke Higher Education Act, introduced by Rep. Burgess Owens, includes legislation that amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) to require colleges and universities to put in place First Amendment principles in order to receive funding, and prohibits accreditors from requiring schools to adhere to partisan frameworks and ideological litmus tests to receive accreditation.
What is happening on college campuses and in classrooms goes against the values America was built on. House Republicans are fighting to ensure American students are able to freely express themselves and have the opportunity to allow their ideas to compete without repercussion.
Keeping Political Agendas Out of America’s Financial System
Under the Biden-Harris Administration, radical regulators have been weaponizing agencies to force their far-Left agenda and ESG initiatives on public companies, investors, American retirees, and workers through partisan policies and regulatory mandates – at the expense of the American people and our financial system.
By pushing their political views on public companies, these out-of-control regulators and their partisan mandates lead to higher costs for companies in the public markets, hinder American public companies’ ability to compete effectively on a global scale, burden corporate resources, and put workers and investors of these companies at risk.
These rogue regulators have allowed the takeover of the public company shareholder proxy process, reached far beyond their statutory authority with radical rules and guidance, handed over financial regulatory authority to global governance bodies, and redefined the ‘materiality standard.’
Unelected bureaucrats like these progressive activists do not have the authority to make these decisions on climate and social policy – that’s the job of elected representatives in Congress. We cannot sacrifice a strong financial system and capital market dominance for Democrats’ radical woke agenda and ESG initiative that threaten hardworking Americans’ financial security.
House Republicans are bringing legislation to block the Biden-Harris ESG agenda and restore our capital markets and financial system to strength. This legislation includes Rep. Huizenga’s Guiding Uniform and Responsible Disclosure Requirements and Information Limits (GUARDRAIL) Act, Rep. Norman’s Businesses Over Activists Act, Rep. Steil’s Protecting Retirement Savings from Politics Act, and Rep. Loudermilk’s American Financial Institution Regulator Sovereignty and Transparency (FIRST) Act.
H.R. 4790, the Prioritizing Economic Growth Over Woke Policies Act, introduced by Rep. Bill Huizenga, prevents radical leftist regulators from inserting ESG and other partisan policy into America’s financial system by blocking regulatory overreach, fixing the SEC’s proxy voting process and holding proxy advisory firms accountable, and restoring the materiality standard.
House Republicans won’t stop fighting to protect investors and retirees’ financial security from risky ESG considerations and overreaching regulators, defending Americans’ financial interests and strengthening our financial system.
Distribution channels: U.S. Politics
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