[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3242 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3242

To amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to revise the shareholder 
  threshold for registration under that Act for issuers that receive 
 support through certain Federal universal service support mechanisms, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            November 7, 2023

Ms. Baldwin (for herself, Ms. Sinema, Mr. Grassley, Mr. Cramer, and Ms. 
Ernst) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 
        to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to revise the shareholder 
  threshold for registration under that Act for issuers that receive 
 support through certain Federal universal service support mechanisms, 
                        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 ``Access to Capital Creates Economic 
Strength and Supports Rural America Act'' or the ``ACCESS Rural America 
Act''.

SEC. 2. SHAREHOLDER THRESHOLD FOR REGISTRATION OF CERTAIN ISSUERS.

    Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 
78l(g)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1)--
                    (A) in subparagraph (A)(ii), by striking ``and'' at 
                the end;
                    (B) in subparagraph (B), by adding ``and'' at the 
                end;
                    (C) by inserting after subparagraph (B) the 
                following:
            ``(C) in the case of an issuer that, during its previous 
        fiscal year, received support through the Federal universal 
        service support mechanism for rural, insular, and high cost 
        areas established under section 254 of the Communications Act 
        of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 254) and filed the report described in 
        paragraph (7) with respect to such fiscal year, not later than 
        120 days after the last day of its first fiscal year ended 
        after the date of enactment of this subparagraph, on which the 
        issuer has total assets exceeding $10,000,000 and a class of 
        equity security (other than an exempted security) held of 
        record by 2,000 or more persons,''; and
                    (D) in the flush text following subparagraph (C), 
                as added by subparagraph (C) of this paragraph, by 
                adding at the end the following: ``The dollar figures 
                in subparagraph (C) shall be indexed for inflation 
                every 5 years by the Commission to reflect the change 
                in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers 
                published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, rounded to 
                the nearest $100,000.''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(7) Mandatory Disclosures by Certain Universal Service Support 
Mechanism Recipients.--
            ``(A) In general.--The Commission shall issue regulations 
        to establish a financial summary form to be filed with the 
        Commission that may, upon request by an investor, be made 
        available by an issuer that--
                    ``(i) during its previous fiscal year, received 
                support, directly or through an affiliate, through the 
                Federal universal service support mechanism for rural, 
                insular, and high cost areas established under section 
                254 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 254); 
                and
                    ``(ii) has a class of equity security held of 
                record by--
                            ``(I) not fewer than 500 persons who are 
                        not accredited investors (as such term is 
                        defined by the Commission); and
                            ``(II) fewer than 2,000 persons.
            ``(B) Contents.--The form described in subparagraph (A) 
        shall include a summary of the consolidated balance sheet and 
        the consolidated income statement of the issuer and such other 
        information as the Commission determines is necessary and 
        appropriate in the public interest and for the protection of 
        investors.''.
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