"[The Council of Institutional Investors (CII)] disputes the DOL assertion that there is 'a persistent misunderstanding among some stakeholders that ERISA fiduciaries are required to vote all proxies' and that 'some fiduciaries and proxy advisory firms ... may be acting in ways that unwittingly allow plan assets to be used to support or pursue proxy proposals for environmental, social or public policy agendas that have no connection to increasing the value of investments.' ... Overall, CII believes the proposal would create an overly burdensome and unjustified process for considering the voting of proxies that would, in many cases, effectively prohibit ERISA plans from exercising their shareholder rights."  MORE >>