[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1815 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1815
To require the Securities and Exchange Commission, when developing
rules and regulations about disclosures to retail investors, to conduct
investor testing, including a survey and interviews of retail
investors, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 18, 2019
Mr. Casten of Illinois introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Financial Services
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Securities and Exchange Commission, when developing
rules and regulations about disclosures to retail investors, to conduct
investor testing, including a survey and interviews of retail
investors, 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 ``SEC Disclosure Effectiveness Testing
Act''.
SEC. 2. DISCLOSURE TESTING.
(a) In General.--Section 23(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of
1934 is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(4) Investor Testing.--
``(A) In general.--The Commission, prior to making any rule
or regulation pursuant to any provision of the securities laws
which would designate documents or information to be provided
to a retail investor, shall engage in investor testing to
assess whether designating such documents or information will
achieve the purpose intended by the Commission.
``(B) Contents.--Investor testing conducted pursuant to
subparagraph (A) shall include the following:
``(i) Qualitative testing in the form of one-on-one
cognitive interviews of retail investors about
documents or information, or samples of such documents
or information, to be provided.
``(ii) A nationwide survey of retail investors,
designed to complement the interviews under clause (i),
on--
``(I) the usefulness of such documents or
information, or samples of such documents or
information;
``(II) the proposed format of such
documents or information, or samples of such
documents or information; and
``(III) delivery preferences of such
documents or information, or samples of such
documents or information.
``(iii) Analysis and publication in the Federal
Register of the results of the survey and interviews.
``(iv) An opportunity for the public to comment on
such results published in the Federal Register.
``(C) Substantive changes.--If the Commission, in the
period between engaging in investor testing and publishing a
final rule, makes substantive changes to such rule that the
Commission determines would have a significant impact on
investors, the Commission shall again engage in investor
testing.''.
(b) Prior Rules.--
(1) In general.--For any final rule or regulation issued by
the Securities and Exchange Commission (in this subsection
referred to as the ``Commission'') before the date of the
enactment of this Act, pursuant to any provision of the
securities laws (as such term is defined in section 3(a) of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934) which designates documents or
information to be provided to a retail investor, the Commission
shall perform investor testing that includes the contents
described in section 23(a)(4) of the Securities Exchange Act of
1934.
(2) Schedule.--The Commission shall, not later than 6
months after the date of the enactment of this Act, establish a
schedule for completing any investor testing required under
paragraph (1) that prioritizes testing of any final rules and
regulations that designate documents or information central to
retail investor decision making.
(3) Report.--The Commission shall issue a report to
Congress each year containing the following:
(A) The status of any investor testing required
under paragraph (1).
(B) The results of any investor testing completed
under paragraph (1).
(C) Any priorities the Commission has, based on
results of investor testing required by paragraph (1),
for--
(i) revising or eliminating any final rule
or regulation designating documents or
information to be provided to retail investors;
and
(ii) revising any other final rule or
regulation to supplement revised or eliminated
rules designating documents or information to
be provided to retail investors.
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