Every U.S. public company now has a decision to make, and not making it is itself a choice.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed to rescind the shareholder proposal rule, Rule 14a-8, in its entirety. The proposal was published in the Federal Register on September 21; comments are due November 20, 2026.

Companies that treat the SEC’s shareholder proposal process as an inconvenience or annoyance may be tempted to welcome its burial. We think that reaction misjudges the importance of the process to company-shareholder relations and the can of worms that eliminating Rule 14a-8 would open.

We are shareholder advocates. We have spent years on the proponent side of this process. We are not going to argue that Rule 14a-8 is perfect. Instead, we caution that the system in place is better for companies and investors than the landscape that would replace it, and that companies have a short window in which to say so.

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