[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 37 (Tuesday, March 20, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E393]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    INTRODUCTION OF THE INVESTOR AND CAPITAL MARKETS FEE RELIEF ACT

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                         HON. MICHAEL G. OXLEY

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 20, 2001

  Mr. OXLEY. Mr. Speaker, I applaud my colleagues Mr. Fossella, Mr. 
Baker, Mrs. Kelly, and Mrs. Maloney for introducing legislation that is 
vitally important to every American investor  indeed, to every American 
business seeking access to our capital markets. It's called the 
Investor and Capital Markets Fee Relief Act, and it will save investors 
and market participants $14 billion dollars over the next ten years.
  Congress must take action. If nothing is done to stop the flow of 
investors' cash into government coffers, more than $24 billion 
overcharges will be collected over the next ten years.
  This fee Relief legislation reduces fees to a level more consistent 
with Congress's original intent. Fees will recover the Commission's 
costs of supervising the markets, but they will no longer be a 
burdensome tax on investors and capital formation.
  The bill reduces all excess SEC fees: transaction, registration, 
merger/tender, single stock futures, and the trust indenture fee. The 
fee relief bill provides a stable funding structure for the SEC by 
ensuring that appropriators have sufficient funds to meet the agency's 
funding needs.
  The fee relief bill also includes a pay parity provision to help the 
Commission attract and retain first-rate attorneys, accountants, and 
economists. In the post-Gramm-Leach-Bliley financial services world, 
SEC professionals performing the same work as their colleagues in the 
banking agencies should receive similar compensation.
  I would like to commend our colleagues in the other Body, 
specifically Senators Phil Gramm and Chuck Schumer, for their excellent 
work in moving similar legislation, S. 143, through the Senate Banking 
Committee. I look forward to seeing the Senate act on that legislation 
soon.
  Here in the House, I thank my numerous colleagues from both sides of 
the aisle who have joined Mr. Fossella as original cosponsors of this 
legislation and given it such strong bipartisan support right from the 
start. I look forward to moving this bill through the financial 
Services Committee expeditiously.

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