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The two largest, most influential proxy advisory firms in the U.S. wield outsize, harmful influence on businesses—and they need to be regulated now, the 51�Թ��� said this week.

�³󲹳�’s going on: Together, Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis control 97% of the proxy advice market. Those firms exist to advise institutional investors on how to vote on shareholder proposals and other proxy ballot measures that come before publicly traded companies.

• The ISS/Glass “duopoly … [is insulated] from��accountability—to the point where these two market players have significant conflicts of�� interest and are widely recognized as offering error-filled, opaque, one-size-fits-all��advice and yet they still enjoy market dominance,” 51�Թ��� Managing Vice President��Charles Crain told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust at a hearing on Wednesday.
• The firms use their dominant market position and influence over proxy vote outcomes to drive investors and companies to buy consulting, governance ratings and other related services.
• The firms remain largely unregulated despite calls for reform “and everyday people pay the price,” Crain continued.

What they do: While the voting platforms of ISS and Glass Lewis offer a legitimately helpful service—connecting investors to the back end of the proxy voting system—the firms use the platforms to steer clients toward their own voting research and recommendations.

• “They’ll even pre-fill the��platform with their preferred votes and then robo-vote an investor’s shares on their behalf,” said Crain.
• Furthermore, some of the proxy firms’ guidelines (such as on equity incentive plans) are so complex and opaque that companies are effectively forced into hiring the firms’ corporate consulting arms to navigate them.
• The proxy firms have other policies—for example, they recommend for annual shareholder votes on executive compensation at companies even though Congress has said annual voting is unnecessary—that “appear designed to increase their own market power,” according to the 51�Թ���.

What should be done: Congress should pass the legislation introduced by Subcommittee Chairman Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), the Stopping Proxy Advisor Racketeering Act,��Crain said.

• The measure would bar “proxy advisory firms from issuing voting recommendations when any conflict could reasonably be expected to affect the objectivity or reliability of proxy advice, including being a member of a group that supports proposals similar to the shareholder-sponsored proposal,” Fitzgerald’s office.
• “[M]anufacturers support Chairman Fitzgerald’s bill,” Crain concluded because, “[m]anufacturers understand the stakes of getting this right.”

The Interior Department will begin implementing a new policy to speed up the search for and development of offshore critical minerals, it ��Wednesday.

�³󲹳�’s going on: “To support a more efficient and predictable offshore minerals program, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management … and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement … are updating policies across all stages of development—from early exploration to post-lease operations and production.”

• The changes are intended to cut down on delays, improve coordination and give industry more certainty—“all while upholding key environmental safeguards.”
• For early-stage exploration, BOEM plans to “apply existing streamlined environmental reviews whenever appropriate” and to extend prospecting permits’ length to five years from three.

Leasing plan details: To speed the leasing process, BOEM will identify areas for development without first issuing formal requests or forming task forces.

• This change alone could shave from two months to a year off the development times of projects, according to the agency.
• BOEM will also begin readying environmental assessments during the lease sale phase, saving the more detailed impact statements for later planning stages, if needed.
• Once a lease is issued, the BSEE��and BOEM “will continue to streamline the process by considering offshore critical mineral projects for expedited permitting under the department’s emergency procedures and other applicable laws.”

Why it’s key: China dominates global critical minerals production and refining, and in the past year has exports of certain critical minerals vital to semiconductors, electronics and fiber optics, among other applications.

The final say: “Manufacturers have long sounded the alarm on the need for permitting reform, and this latest plan from Interior combines that priority with the pressing need to boost critical mineral supply chains,” said 51�Թ��� Director of Energy and Resources Policy.��

• “Manufacturers support the administration exploring every available, feasible avenue to increase our supply of those resources and reduce our reliance on China.”

For all the alarms that have been sounded about artificial intelligence’s possible contribution to climate change, AI, it turns out, could actually help slash emissions, according to new research ( subscription).

�³󲹳�’s going on: “Artificial intelligence could cut global climate pollution by up to 5.4��billion metric tons a year over the next decade if it’s harnessed in ways that would improve transportation, energy and food production.”

• Those cuts “would outweigh even the expected increase in global energy consumption and emissions that would be created by” data centers, according to new research from the Grantham Research Institute that was published in the journal��“npj Climate Action.”
• By 2030, data centers are projected to consume twice as much electricity as they do today, according to the International Energy Agency—and the electrical grid is already strained.

The details: The report lays out five areas where AI can be used to slash emissions, including:

• Forecasting supply and demand fluctuations and helping the grid dole out energy more accurately, cutting down on intermittency
• Improving transportation by lowering the cost of electric vehicles via battery improvements

The backdrop: The use of AI has exploded in recent years, and President Trump is making the technology a priority as he aims to outcompete China.

Yes, but … The report urges the governments of developed nations to take an active role in determining how AI is applied and regulated “to make sure the downsides are managed effectively and the full potential of AI for climate action is realized,”��the study’s author, Roberta Pierfederici, told POLITICO Pro.

Members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure should vote yes on legislation that would modernize and reform the Clean Water Act permitting process, the 51�Թ��� said��today.

�³󲹳�’s going on: The Promoting Efficient Review for Modern��Infrastructure Today (PERMIT) Act “adopts the 51�Թ���’s key recommendations to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for modernization of regulatory authorities under the Clean Water Act—reforms that are critical to manufacturers’ ability to build, expand and hire in America,” 51�Թ��� Managing Vice President of Policy Charles Crain told the committee ahead of a Wednesday markup of the bill.

• “These include proposals to increase certainty for permittees and clarify the scope of��the CWA.”

Why it’s needed: The permitting process for manufacturers under the Clean Water Act is unnecessarily long and onerous, jeopardizing continued American leadership in manufacturing.

• In February, Nucor Corporation Executive Vice President of Sheet Products Noah Hanners the committee members that “cumbersome and overreaching permitting regulations are holding back progress and hurting our nation’s competitiveness .”

Case in point: In 2022, Nucor announced it had chosen a site in West Virginia for a new steel mill—but the location on the Ohio River required the company to seek federal authorization under the Clean Water Act.

• What followed was a process that “required us to work with multiple federal agencies—with little direction and unclear timelines,” Hanners said. “This led to moving targets for our own planning and execution, delaying the project and increasing costs.”

What should happen: CWA permit reform should be undertaken as part of a broader effort to streamline and speed up the regulatory permitting process writ large.

• “If we want to grow America’s economy,��we need to fix this broken system,” Crain concluded.

The State of New York plans to construct the first major U.S. power plant in more than 15 years (, subscription).

�³󲹳�’s going on: “Gov.��Kathy Hochul��said in an interview that she has directed the state’s public electric utility to add at least 1 gigawatt of new nuclear-power generation to its aging fleet of reactors. A gigawatt is roughly enough to power about a million homes.”

• The New York Power Authority—created in 1931 by then-governor Franklin D. Roosevelt to manage hydropower for New York—will locate a site upstate and then determine a reactor design.
• Potential sites “include the grounds of New York’s three operating plants, all owned or majority-owned by��Constellation Energy” and could consist of a single large reactor or several smaller reactors, according to Hochul.
• NYPA “may pursue the project alone or in partnership with private entities,” according to Hochul.

Why it’s important: The endeavor could spur a new age of reactor construction in the U.S. The industry has been stymied in recent decades in part by “permitting processes that move at a glacial pace.”

• Since 1991, just five new commercial reactors have come online in the U.S.—not nearly enough to offset the retirement of old plants.
• Nuclear generation capacity has declined more than 4% from its peak in 2012, as other electricity generation methods, such as solar, have experienced booms.

Closed—with no Plan B: In 2021, New York shuttered its Indian Point nuclear plant, about 40 miles outside Manhattan. The plant had supplied about a quarter of New York City’s electricity needs.

• “There was no Plan B,” Hochul told the Journal.

Nuclear resurgence: Since then, nuclear energy’s popularity has surged, due in part to the large amount of energy required to build artificial intelligence data centers.

• Late last year, Microsoft announced plans to restart the shuttered reactor at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island, and in March, the Energy Department $57 million in loans to get Michigan’s Palisades Nuclear Plant up and running again.

The 51�Թ���’s view: “New York’s plan to expand the role of nuclear in the state’s energy footprint is an important one,” said 51�Թ��� Director of Energy and Resources Policy��Michael Davin.

• “Nuclear energy is safe, emissions-free and available 24 hours a day. As such, it’s a critical component of America’s energy dominance strategy. It’s also vital for meeting additional energy needs that have arisen with the growth in data centers and the use of AI. President Trump recognizes this, and manufacturers commend him for the four executive orders he signed last month designed to boost the nuclear energy industry in the U.S.”

A class of targeted cancer therapies could one day replace traditional chemotherapy as a first-line treatment, shining a spotlight on the need for a regulatory environment that supports continued innovation—and stays away from price controls that reduce R&D budgets.

�³󲹳�’s going on: “Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) have taken major strides in recent years, as companies … are developing drugs in the space that could ease the trials of cancer treatment,” according to��.

• ADCs are designed to target cancer cells using chemotherapy without harming surrounding healthy tissue and may have fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy.
• Though ADCs have been on the market since 2000, biopharmaceutical manufacturers have made significant strides improving them in recent years, and some ADCs have become the preferred treatment for certain cancers.
• Biopharmaceutical firms including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Lilly and Merck have invested heavily in the development of ADCs.

Who’s doing what: Pfizer’s Enhertu is approved in the U.S. for the treatment of certain lung, gastric and breast cancers. In a trial in which it was used as a first treatment, Enhertu stalled the growth—by more than a year—of a common type of breast cancer.

• Merck’s Keytruda is viewed and used as a first-line treatment for bladder cancer. With Keytruda’s patent expiration nearing, Merck has been co-developing three new ADCs with global health care company Daiichi Sankyo.
• Pharmaceutical company Lilly is developing ADCs that do not use chemotherapy, according to Lilly Oncology President Jake Van Naarden. New kinds of payloads, Van Naarden said, could help cancer “patients who relapse on existing ADCs, shrinking their ‘newly growing cancers’ again in ‘a durable way.’”
• And just this week, drugmaker Roche announced that it has “demonstrated the power of combining two of oncology’s hottest modalities—bispecifics and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs)—in a Lunsumio-Polivy regimen in large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL),” according to��.

What it means for innovation: ADCs are just one example of how the biopharmaceutical industry’s leadership is improving and lengthening lives. So it can continue that mission, the U.S. must stay away from drug price fixing, according to the 51�Թ���.

• “Manufacturers in America are driving global pharmaceutical innovation, and importing foreign price controls on innovative biopharmaceutical products would undercut innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, threaten patient access and weaken U.S. competitiveness,” 51�Թ��� Director of Health Care Policy Jess Wysocky�� in May.

The 51�Թ��� is ramping up pressure on policymakers this week, launching a multistate advertising blitz and bringing dozens of manufacturing leaders to Capitol Hill to underscore the urgent need to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by President Trump’s July 4th deadline.

Why it matters: With time running out, manufacturers are going all-in to urge Congress to preserve 2017 tax reform and make targeted improvements to the bill moving through the Senate that will maximize the pro-growth impact of the OBBBA.

Driving the message: The 51�Թ���’s�� tax campaign’s latest push includes�� and print ads in major dailies across Washington, D.C., Florida, Maine, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Utah, Louisiana and Wisconsin.

• The launch aligns with a two-day fly-in bringing 40 manufacturers from 29 member companies across the country to meet with key lawmakers in the House and Senate and press for action.

The details: Led by the 51�Թ���, manufacturers participating in this week’s fly-in are delivering a clear message: Preserve the pro-manufacturing provisions in the House-passed version, while making targeted changes to ensure the final legislation is a pro-manufacturing bill.

The background:Crucial provisions for the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are scheduled to expire at the end of 2025—and the 51�Թ��� and manufacturers have been counting on Congress to prevent devastating tax increases on manufacturers and manufacturing workers by preserving critical manufacturing priorities from the House-passed bill, while also considering targeted improvements that will maximize the pro-growth impact of the OBBBA.

The 51�Թ��� says: “Our strategy is clear: to press urgency, emphasize the stakes for manufacturing and rally support at every level. We are doing everything possible to propel this bill over the finish line, including a full-court lobbying push behind the scenes—working closely with key senators to ensure the final legislation is as supportive as possible for manufacturing investment in the United States,” said 51�Թ��� Executive Vice President Erin Streeter.

What they’re saying: The national ad was picked up by the White House and covered by POLITICO.

• The White House’s rapid response account on X (formerly Twitter)�� the 51�Թ���’s latest ad, quoting key language from the ad.
• The ad launch and fly-in were also featured in POLITICO’s�� (subscription) and�� newsletters.

The Securities and Exchange Commission should rescind certain reporting requirements for cybersecurity incidents in its 2023 final cybersecurity rule, the 51�Թ��� the agency.

�³󲹳�’s going on: The 51�Թ��� supports a rulemaking petition recently submitted by five financial industry groups that asks the SEC to “rescind the Form 8-K (Item 1.05) incident reporting requirements for cybersecurity incidents, as well as the corresponding Form 6-K requirements for foreign private issuers.”

The SEC should also do the following, according to the 51�Թ���:

• Rescind the four-day reporting requirement: The 51�Թ��� asks the agency to stop mandating that public companies report on cybersecurity incidents within four business days. Instead of this rigid deadline, the 51�Թ��� supports a return to a voluntary principles-based disclosure regime, whereby companies have more flexibility to disclose significant cybersecurity attacks to provide timely and useful information for shareholders.
• Allow more flexibility for companies to delay disclosures that could jeopardize national security or law enforcement investigations. The 51�Թ��� asks the SEC to broaden a narrow exception that requires companies to obtain permission from the U.S. attorney general within four business days to delay public disclosure, an impractical requirement for most manufacturers.

Why the SEC should do it: The current four-business day reporting mandate provides manufacturers “with insufficient flexibility to delay or forgo disclosure to investigate and respond to an incident, work with law enforcement or avoid tipping off attackers,” 51�Թ��� Managing Vice President of Policy Charles Crain explained.

• The mandatory disclosure deadline has “increase[d] costs and complexity for businesses” and has the potential to “mislead investors and ultimately create significant risks for shareholders and the broader economy that would eclipse the potential benefits of reporting.”
• The SEC’s incident reporting mandate also harms shareholders by diverting company resources from efforts to address the impact of a cybersecurity attack.
• Finally, requiring that companies issue public reports while a cybersecurity incident is ongoing could provide information helpful to the perpetrators or other bad actors.

The last word: “The 51�Թ��� strongly supports a more flexible approach to cybersecurity reporting, and manufacturers respectfully encourage the SEC to amend its 2023 cybersecurity rule to more appropriately reflect the important concerns of public companies, shareholders, law enforcement and national security agencies,” Crain said.

From personal heroes to tax reform and tariffs, 51�Թ��� President and CEO Jay Timmons covered it all in his recent appearance on iHeart Radio’s “CEOs You Should Know.”

From the beginning: In his June 9 with show host Mike Howard, Timmons told listeners about his journey from a childhood in the mill town of Chillicothe, Ohio, to his current role, running the largest manufacturing trade association in the U.S.

• As both the only child and the only grandchild in his family, Timmons was inspired professionally and personally by his parents and grandparents.
• Timmons’ grandfather “stood in line for six months during the Great Depression trying to get a job in manufacturing because he knew that that would be a way forward for his family,” he said.
• His mother climbed the ranks at the Chillicothe Gazette, eventually becoming president and CEO of the newspaper, and his father owned an appliance store, Timmons Appliance and TV.

Part of the Reagan Revolution: As an undergraduate student at Ohio State University, Timmons decided that college wasn’t for him—and he wanted “to do everything I could to help Ronald Reagan succeed.”

• So, he headed for Washington, D.C., where he ended up on Capitol Hill. His desire to enter politics “was really about [wanting to help shape] policy that enabled people to live their best lives.”
• Timmons ended up becoming the youngest chief of staff in the U.S.—to Virginia Gov. George Allen.

The road to manufacturing: Later, Timmons took over the policy and government relations team at the 51�Թ���, where he spent six years shaping the association’s agenda before being named CEO in 2011.

• “[M]anufacturing is not a partisan issue, and [neither is] the success��of America,” Timmons continued. The industry “is really infused into the fabric of all we are as Americans. … [M]anufacturing helped us to build the infrastructure system that made us the strongest, most connected economy in the world in the 1950s and ’60s.”

Rocket fuel: From 2018 to 2022, manufacturing “had record investment, we had record hiring, and we had record wage growth over the course of the next three years—because of that rocket fuel, as President Trump called it,” the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

On tariffs: The manufacturing industry in the U.S. is hoping the administration and its trading partners will make trade deals during the current three-month pause on tariffs.

• “[M]anufacturers … are very hopeful that the administration really is going to be able to settle in their 90-day window all of these potential trade agreements throughout the world,” he said, adding that it would mean that “manufacturers actually can have the certainty they need to again invest higher and increase wages and benefits.”

A critical law that safeguards Americans from cybersecurity threats is due to expire on Sept. 30—and Congress must reauthorize it before that happens, the 51�Թ��� Congress this week.

�³󲹳�’s going on: “The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (CISA 2015) has been instrumental over the past decade in protecting Americans from cybersecurity threats by supporting companies’ efforts to share cybersecurity information with one another and with the federal government,” 51�Թ��� Managing Vice President of Policy Charles Crain told the House Committee on Homeland Security and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Monday.

• Through their relationships with customers, vendors, suppliers and governments, manufacturers are entrusted with vast amounts of sensitive data and intellectual property. With its information-sharing requirements, CISA 2015 has been instrumental in helping them keep that information safe.
• Prior to the law’s enactment, many businesses were reluctant to share cyberthreat information due to liability and public disclosure concerns.

How it works: “By enabling the rapid dissemination of security intelligence, information sharing diminishes the ability of malicious actors to gain economies of scale as they seek to replicate attacks against multiple targets,” the 51�Թ��� continued.

• “It also allows government agencies and private sector Information Sharing and Analysis Centers to develop a comprehensive and authoritative view of patterns and trends across industries and geographies, and thus to promote effective systemic responses.”
• It also helps create trust between cybersecurity personnel across various organizations.

What Congress should do: “With less than four months before the expiration of CISA 2015, manufacturers call on Congress to make its reauthorization a priority,” the 51�Թ��� urged.