[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2969 Introduced in House (IH)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2969

    To provide for the establishment of the United States Employee 
                Ownership Bank, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 25, 2003

Mr. Sanders (for himself, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mrs. Maloney, Mr. Manzullo, 
 Mr. Michaud, Mr. Goode, Mr. Lipinski, Ms. Lee, Mr. Ryan of Ohio, Mr. 
    Lantos, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Serrano, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Owens, Ms. 
    Kilpatrick, Mrs. Christensen, and Ms. Bordallo) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial 
                                Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To provide for the establishment of the United States Employee 
                Ownership Bank, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``United States Employee Ownership 
Bank Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds as follows:
            (1) Over the past 2 years, the United States has lost more 
        than 2,000,000 decent-paying manufacturing jobs.
            (2) With 14,731,000 total manufacturing jobs, the United 
        States now has the lowest number of factory jobs since October, 
        1958.
            (3) According to Forrester Research, ``Over the next 15 
        years, 3,300,000 United States service industry jobs and 
        $136,000,000,000 in wages will move offshore to countries like 
        India, Russia, China and the Philippines. The IT industry will 
        lead the initial overseas exodus.''.
            (4) At the end of 2002, the United States had a record-
        breaking trade deficit of $435,200,000,000, including a 
        $103,100,000,000 trade deficit with China.
            (5) Preserving and increasing decent-paying jobs must be a 
        top priority of the United States Congress.
            (6) Providing loan guarantees, direct loans, and technical 
        assistance to employees to buy their own companies will 
        preserve and increase employment in the United States.
            (7) Just like the United States Export-Import Bank was 
        created in 1934 during the midst of the Great Depression as a 
        way to increase United States jobs through exports, the time 
        has come to establish the United States Employee Ownership Bank 
        within the Department of the Treasury to preserve and expand 
        jobs in the United States.

SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF UNITED STATES EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP BANK WITHIN 
              THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY.

    (a) Establishment Required.--Before the end of the 30-day period 
beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 
the Treasury (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the ``Secretary'') 
shall establish the United States Employee Ownership Bank (hereinafter 
referred to as the ``Bank'') to foster increased employee ownership and 
greater employee participation in company decision-making throughout 
the United States.
    (b) Duties of Bank.--The Secretary shall establish such Bank to 
provide the following:
            (1) Loans subordinated to the interests of all other 
        creditors, loan guarantees, and technical assistance, on such 
        terms and subject to such conditions as the Secretary 
        determines to be appropriate, to employees to purchase a 
        business through an employee stock ownership plan or eligible 
        worker-owned cooperative that are at least 51 percent employee 
        owned.
            (2) Grants to States and nonprofit and cooperative 
        organizations with experience in developing employee-owned 
        businesses and worker-owned cooperatives to provide education 
        and outreach to inform people about the possibilities and 
        benefits of employee ownership of companies, gain sharing, and 
        participation in company decision-making, including some 
        financial education.
            (3) Grants to States and nonprofit and cooperative 
        organizations with experience in developing employee-owned 
        businesses and worker-owned cooperatives to provide technical 
        assistance to assist employee efforts to become business 
        owners.
            (4) Grants to States and nonprofit and cooperative 
        organizations with experience in developing employee-owned 
        businesses and worker-owned cooperatives to provide 
        participation training to teach employees and employers methods 
        of employee participation in company decision-making.
            (5) Grants to States and nonprofit and cooperative 
        organizations with experience in developing employee-owned 
        businesses and worker-owned cooperatives to conduct objective 
        third party pre-feasibility and feasibility studies to 
determine if employees who would like to start-up employee stock 
ownership plans or worker cooperatives would be able to make a profit.
    (c) Preconditions.--Before the Bank makes any subordinated loan or 
loan guarantee under subsection (b)(1), the employees shall submit to 
the Bank the following:
            (1) A business plan that shows that--
                    (A) at least 51 percent of all interests in the 
                employee stock ownership plan or eligible worker-owned 
                cooperative is owned or controlled by employees;
                    (B) the Board of Directors of the employee stock 
                ownership plan or eligible worker-owned cooperative is 
                elected by all of the employees; and
                    (C) all employees receive basic information about 
                company progress and have the opportunity to 
                participate in day-to-day operations.
            (2) A feasibility study from an objective third party with 
        a positive determination that the employee stock ownership plan 
        or eligible worker owned cooperative will be profitable enough 
        to pay back any loan, subordinated loan or loan guarantee that 
        was made possible through the United States Employee Ownership 
        Bank.
    (d) Insurance of Subordinated Loans and Loan Guarantees.--
            (1) In general.--The Bank shall, with respect to any 
        subordinated loan or loan guarantee provided under this Act, 
        insure such loan or loan guarantee against the nonrepayment of 
        the outstanding balance of the loan.
            (2) Annual premiums.--The Bank shall fix the annual premium 
        for the insurance of each subordinated loan or loan guarantee 
        under this subsection to be paid by the borrower in such manner 
        and in such amount as the Secretary determines to be 
        appropriate.
            (3) Premiums and guarantee fees available to cover 
        losses.--The premiums collected by the Bank from insurance 
        issued under this subsection and the fees collected by the Bank 
        for loan guarantees issued under subsection (b) shall be 
        deposited in a fund in the Treasury and shall be available to 
        the Bank to cover any losses incurred by the Bank in connection 
        with any such loan or loan guarantee.
    (e) Technical Assistance in the Discretion of the Secretary.--In 
the case of activities under subsection (b)(3), the Secretary may 
require the Bank to take the following actions:
            (1) Provide for the targeting of key groups such as 
        retiring business owners, unions, managers, trade associations, 
        and community organizations.
            (2) Encourage cooperation in organizing workshops and 
        conferences.
            (3) Provide for the preparation and distribution of 
        materials concerning employee ownership and participation.
    (f) Participation Training in the Discretion of the Secretary.--In 
the case of activities under subsection (b)(4), the Secretary may 
require the Bank to take the following actions:
            (1) Provide for courses on employee participation.
            (2) Provide for the development and fostering of networks 
        of employee owned companies to spread the use of successful 
        participation techniques.

SEC. 4. REGULATIONS TO ENSURE THE SAFETY AND SOUNDNESS OF THE UNITED 
              STATES EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP BANK.

    Before the end of the 30-day period beginning the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe 
regulations to ensure the safety and soundness of the United States 
Employee Ownership Bank.

SEC. 5. REGULATIONS TO ENSURE THE UNITED STATES EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP BANK 
              WILL NOT COMPETE WITH COMMERCIAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS.

    Before the end of the 30-day period beginning the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe 
regulations to ensure that the United States Employee Ownership Bank 
will not compete with commercial financial institutions.

SEC. 6. COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT CREDIT.

    Section 804 of the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (12 U.S.C. 
2903) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(d) Establishment of ESOPs and EWOCs.--In assessing and taking 
into account, under subsection (a), the record of a financial 
institution, the appropriate Federal financial supervisory agency may 
consider as a factor capital investments, loans, loan participation, 
technical assistance, financial advice, grants, and other ventures 
undertaken by the institution to support or enable manufacturing 
employees to establish employee stock ownership plans or eligible 
worker owned cooperatives that are at least 51 percent employee-owned 
plans or cooperatives.''.

SEC. 7. ORGANIZATION OF BANK.

    (a) Management.--There shall be at the head of the Bank, a Director 
of the United States Employee Ownership Bank (hereinafter in this Act 
referred to as the ``Director''), who shall be appointed by and serve 
at the pleasure of the Secretary.
    (b) Staff.--The Director may select, appoint, employ, and fix the 
compensation of such employees as shall be necessary to carry out the 
functions of the Bank.

SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of the 
Treasury $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 
and 2008 to carry out the purposes of this Act.
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