On the same day Jeff Bezos sat in the front row of the inauguration (that Amazon helped finance), the retail giant sent nine letters pressing the Trump administration to let the company block votes on initiatives from its own shareholders. These include proposals to disclose more information about Amazon’s treatment of warehouse workers, handling of private medical data, lobbying activities, AI-related energy use, and employee pay gaps.
UnitedHealth also called in some favors. A day after Amazon’s move, UnitedHealth asked Trump’s Securities and Exchange Commission to allow it to block votes on shareholder proposals requiring the company to 1) audit previous customer denial claims to see if they were inaccurate and 2) disclose “how often prior authorization requirements or denials of coverage lead to delay or abandonment of medical treatment.” UnitedHealth has among the highest claim denial rates in the country.
The Lever reported that during Trump’s first term, his regulators passed rules that made it more difficult for shareholders to force votes on their proposals. The Biden administration pushed back. Now, Trump’s SEC chair nominee is Paul Atkins, who has criticized what he calls the “abusive use of the shareholder proposal process.” Because of the timing of Amazon and UnitedHealth’s letters, regulatory decisions about their shareholder resolutions will be made by Trump’s officials — not Biden’s.
Because, woke, obviously. Last September, House Republicans passed the Prioritizing Economic Growth Over Woke Policies Act, which aimed to give companies limitless power to exclude shareholder proposals. The legislation also would have limited the SEC’s power to require public companies to report on issues considered unrelated to their financial health.
