Armstrong Joins Bipartisan Push to Defend Farmers from Burdensome Regulations

Press Release

Today, Congressman Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) joined Congressman John Rose (R-TN) and 116 members of Congress to send a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler expressing concerns that a proposed rule mandating extensive climate disclosures by public companies would negatively affect farmers.

The proposed rule on "Enhanced and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors" would require public companies to include climate-related information in their annual reports. This could potentially include disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions, climate-related risks, processes for identifying climate-related risks, and other downstream supply chain information. This poses a significant threat to farms as it could prevent them from being able to sell their products to public companies as most do not have the resources necessary to gather all the information required by the proposed rule.

The agriculture sector of the U.S. economy provides nearly every raw product that goes into the supply chain, with a valued contribution of over $1 trillion to the U.S. GDP. While farmers and ranchers would not be required to report directly to the SEC, many of the regulatory burdens of this rulemaking could fall on farmers as a condition of doing business with public companies covered by this disastrous rule.

"We know that America's farmers and ranchers are the best stewards of our environment, but unelected bureaucrats in DC believe they should be burdened with numerous disclosure requirements,"said Congressman Armstrong. "The proposed rule would be a disaster for agriculture in North Dakota and do nothing to keep our air and water clean. I urge the SEC to withdraw it."

"Unelected bureaucrats in Washington who have never stepped foot on a farm should not have such an intrusive and detrimental influence on how farmers take care of their land," said Congressman Rose. "The SEC has clearly overstepped its bounds and proposed a rule that would have devastating effects on our farmers. They should listen to farmers and reverse this terrible proposal before putting our entire nationwide supply of safe and affordable food and agricultural products at risk."

The full letter can be found here.

Background:

On March 21, 2022, the SEC proposed a rule that would require public companies to include certain climate-related disclosures in their registration statements and periodic reports. Specifically, the proposed rule requires a registrant to disclose information about its direct greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1) and indirect emissions from purchased electricity or other forms of energy (Scope 2). In addition, a registrant would be required to disclose greenhouse gas emissions from upstream and downstream activities in its value chain (Scope 3) if it is material or if a company has set climate-related targets. Most notably for agriculture, the Scope 3 disclosures could impede farmers' and ranchers' ability to conduct business with public companies. You can read more about how this would impact the agriculture industry from Farm Bureau here.

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