Florida Cabinet Agrees to Anti-woke Investment Rule

The Florida Cabinet on Tuesday approved an anti-woke investment rule for the state’s pension plan, Florida Politics is reporting.

The action came as the Cabinet agreed to the rule for the State Board of Administration (SBA).

According to the politics website, the rules require investment decisions based solely on economic factors and bans the agency from sacrificing investment returns or taking additional risks.

"The movement that we've seen to harness economic power to try to advance an ideological agenda that doesn't have enough appeal to win at the ballot box is something that is very significant, and I think, ultimately not in the best interest of our society, at writ large, but certainly the people of Florida," Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., said.

Lamar Taylor, interim executive director of the SBA said the measure would protect the pensions of current and future retirees.

"By taking this action today, the trustees will be protecting current and future beneficiaries from investment ideologies that would seek to maximize social impact over and above an actual return," Taylor said.

In July, DeSantis had said he would like to eliminate or phase out a system where state investments rely on "environmental, social, governance" — or ESG — ratings.

Last week, DeSantis proclaimed that Florida is "the place where woke goes to die."

During remarks about the state's education system, DeSantis committed to continuing to oppose the trends of teaching critical race theory and radical gender ideology in schools.

"Obviously in the classroom we've battled a lot of ideologies," DeSantis said. "What I've said is the state of Florida is the place where woke goes to die. We are not going to let this state descend into some type of woke dumpster fire.

"We're going to be following common sense; we're going to be following facts."

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