Texas lawmakers are demanding investment behemoth BlackRock Inc. provide documents regarding its environmental, social and corporate governance policy.
The Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs issued the subpoena last month to BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager. The company caused a stir when it revealed in its annual letter to shareholders from CEO Larry Fink that it wants to invest some of its $8.5 trillion in managed assets into ESG principles and encouraged companies to think about the risks of climate change.
BlackRock's ESG policy is called "woke capitalism" by many Republican critics, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been pushing back on corporations he perceives have a "woke" ideology. On Dec. 1, Florida divested $2 billion worth of assets managed by BlackRock, mirroring moves done by Louisiana and Missouri in October that totaled nearly $1.3 billion.
The Texas Senate committee wants BlackRock to respond in time for a scheduled hearing Dec. 15 at the statehouse in Austin. The subpoena listed six high-ranking company executives, including Fink, and requested at least one attend the hearing to answer questions.
"The committee needs these documents to uncover the extent to which these firms have been playing politics using Texans' hard-earned money," said state Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, the committee's chair, according to The Washington Times. "We will not allow these firms to continue to use Texans' money to force a narrow political agenda. They have a legal duty to put their investors' interests first, and we intend to make sure they do."
A BlackRock spokesperson told DailyMail.com: "We look forward to continuing our engagement with the Committee to share BlackRock's work on behalf of millions of investors."
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