US President Joe Biden used his veto power for the first time since he came to the White House to reject a Republican bill.
The opposition is trying to overthrow a Democrat-approved rule requiring pension fund managers to consider environmental and social issues when choosing their investments.
Biden tweeted that the bill would threaten “retirement savings by making it illegal to consider risk factors.”
Republicans see so-called ESG factors as amounting to political interference.
“Your plan manager should be able to protect your hard-earned savings whether Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene likes it or not,” Biden said, referring to a radical GOP congresswoman.
In response, the head of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, denounced that Biden “wants Wall Street to use his hard-earned money, not to grow his savings, but to finance a political agenda of extreme left”.
The conservatives took advantage of their short majority in the House of Representatives to pass the bill.
In the Senate, Democrats hold a slim majority, but three no-shows and two party members joining the Republicans were enough to get the bill passed.
His supporters believe that ESG factors respond to left-wing social concerns and should not be taken into account for financial transactions.
Democrats noted that the policy is neutral on how ESG factors are taken into account as long as the investment fund meets its obligations to its beneficiaries.
The text vetoed on Monday had been widely criticized by environmental organizations.