Protect Investor Rights that Support People & the Planet

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Tell the SEC: Hold Corporations Accountable

Thank you for joining Green America in urging the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) to uphold the current shareholder resolution process that allows investors –even small investors -- to raise crucial social, environmental, and corporate governance issues with Corporate America.

Especially with action on Capitol Hill often at an impasse, we need to ensure that investors retain their current ability to raise key issues with corporations – such as corporate greenhouse gas reduction goals, transparency related to corporate lobbying and election spending, and corporate policies on human rights and non-discrimination.

The SEC is now accepting comments on its harmful, proposed changes to the shareholder resolution process. The proposed changes will weaken the ability of investors to raise important concerns and thereby give corporations more power.

Thank you for taking a moment to sign the letter below to the SEC that Green America will submit on behalf of all the signers.

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Note: By completing this form, your name and state will be included in a document submitted to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC); the document will be available for download on the SEC.gov website.

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To: Vanessa Countryman, Secretary

Securities & Exchange Commission

100 F St., NE

Washington, DC 20549

Re: File Number S7-23-19

We, the undersigned, are deeply concerned about the need to build an economy that will be successful over the long term. This means we need to ensure that social, environmental, and corporate governance issues facing corporations are effectively addressed. As we know, significant improvement across these issues is needed if our economy and society are to thrive for generations to come.

Investors, including small investors, have an important role to play in identifying for corporations a number of risks and corporate impacts of which they may not be aware. These risks and impacts may damage specific companies and the larger economy.

Since 1934, the shareholder proposal process (Rule 14a-8) has been a positive tool that enables investors to share important information with fellow investors and with corporate management. It is working well and should certainly not be weakened. We are very concerned about the following proposed changes and write to oppose the following:

· Increasing the stock ownership level from $2,000 to a whopping $25,000 for shares held for a year. This flies in the face of the SEC’s claimed support for the “main street individual investor.” The ownership level for filing a resolution should remain at $2,000 regardless of the number of years of ownership. In addition, shareholders should retain their long-standing ability to combine their shares if needed in order to meet the $2,000 threshold needed to file a resolution.

· Increasing the percentage of support a shareholder resolution needs in order to be resubmitted for consideration. The current levels of support are working well and allow new, cutting-edge issues to garner support over time. At present, a first year-resolution needs 3% support, a second-year resolution needs 6% support, and subsequent submissions need 10% support. Increasing those thresholds to 5%, 15%, and 25% will prevent important resolutions from being re-filed, and will not help companies improve.

· Limiting investors or their representatives to one shareholder resolution per shareholder meeting. There is no evidence that this is needed and only serves to limit shareholder engagement.

· Requiring investors to be available for dialogue with corporate management even when they have hired financial professionals for their shareholder advocacy. This disrupts the client-manager relationship and represents a major change to the well-established process.

While some companies claim that the current shareholder resolution process is onerous to them, the average company in the Russell 3000 receives only one shareholder proposal every seven years. The benefits of hearing from investors on key issues should be a priority of corporate management.

Thank you for your attention to these concerns. We look forward to hearing that the shareholder proposal process, Rule 14a-8, will be preserved.

Sincerely yours,

Green America, 1612 K St NW Ste 600, Washington DC 20006, 1-800-58-GREEN
www.greenamerica.org

Thank You!