Comer Raises Concerns Over Left-Wing Influence in Regulatory Standards-Setting and Seeks NIST Briefing on Efforts to Protect U.S. Industry

WASHINGTON—Today, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) is raising concerns about the harmful influence of global left-wing activist groups on American businesses and on the work of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). In a letter to U.S. Department of Commerce Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology Craig Burkhardt, Chairman Comer emphasized the importance of international standards-setting bodies, such as the ISO, remaining impartial and grounded in apolitical decision-making and requested a briefing on National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) efforts to protect U.S. industry from the influence of progressive activism and politicization in the standards-setting process.

“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is examining the harmful influences of global activist groups on American businesses including concerns certain left-wing activists have coopted otherwise apolitical standards-setting bodies to compel policy on unwilling companies. The National Institute of Standards and Technology holds the leading federal governmental position in coordinating federal agencies to engage with private sector-led consensus organizations,” wrote Chairman Comer. “The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a purportedly independent body that sets ‘standards [that] impact an estimated 80 percent of the world commodity trade.’ To obtain more information on how NIST is working to use the United States’ representation in ISO through the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to guard against bias and ensure accuracy in ISO’s standards, the Committee requests a staff-level briefing.”

In September 2025, the ISO announced a partnership with Greenhouse Gas Protocol to integrate its carbon emission framework into ISO standards. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is comprised of environmental activists. ISO standards can have a major impact on American businesses, consumers, and the economy. In 2022, the International Organization for Standardization adopted Merchant Category Code 5723, a new code that specifically identifies credit card transactions at gun and ammunition stores, which were previously categorized more broadly as sporting goods or miscellaneous retail retailers. The change followed a push by Amalgamated Bank, which has described itself as the country’s leading progressive bank, and whose CEO, Priscilla Sims Brown, said the code would embolden financial institutions to report suspicious firearm-related transactions to authorities. 

“Left unchecked, such a step would be little more than a pretext to create a registry that a future Administration might use to intimidate or retaliate against Americans who exercise their Second Amendment rights, reflecting the indirect, forceful methods of progressive activists to compel American businesses to act as their accomplices. While ISO-promulgated standards may originate as voluntary regimes, federal law and U.S. Office of Management and Budget regulations tilt American regulatory adoption and standardization toward private-sector-led international and domestic frameworks in the long term. If the ISO begins to shape regulatory and policy outcomes based on progressive activist pressure, the difference between neutral technical guidance and policy advocacy becomes difficult to discern,” concluded Chairman Comer. 

Read the letter here.