[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 14, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H196-H198]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    HOLDING COMPANY REGISTRATION THRESHOLD EQUALIZATION ACT OF 2013

  Mr. GARRETT. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 801) to amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to make 
the shareholder threshold for registration of savings and loan holding 
companies the same as for bank holding companies.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                                H.R. 801

       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 ``Holding Company Registration 
     Threshold Equalization Act of 2013''.

     SEC. 2. REGISTRATION THRESHOLD FOR SAVINGS AND LOAN HOLDING 
                   COMPANIES.

       The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78a et seq.) 
     is amended--
       (1) in section 12(g)--
       (A) in paragraph (1)(B), by inserting after ``is a bank'' 
     the following: ``, a savings and loan holding company (as 
     defined in section 10 of the Home Owners' Loan Act),''; and
       (B) in paragraph (4), by inserting after ``case of a bank'' 
     the following: ``, a savings and loan holding company (as 
     defined in section 10 of the Home Owners' Loan Act),''; and
       (2) in section 15(d), by striking ``case of bank'' and 
     inserting the following: ``case of a bank, a savings and loan 
     holding company (as defined in section 10 of the Home Owners' 
     Loan Act),''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Wagner). Pursuant to the rule, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett) and the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Himes) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey.


                             General Leave

  Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their 
remarks and submit extraneous materials for the Record on H.R. 801, 
currently under consideration.
  Mr. GARRETT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  I rise today, as I did a moment ago as well, in support of this good, 
commonsense legislation, which is H.R. 801, the Holding Company 
Registration Threshold Equalization Act. I also, just like with the 
prior legislation, would like to commend the bipartisan nature of the 
legislation before us and the bipartisan nature of the sponsors of this 
legislation, Representatives Womack, Himes, Delaney, and Mrs. Wagner, 
as well, for their outstanding work on getting this important measure 
to the floor today.
  What does it do?
  H.R. 801 basically corrects a technical oversight from last Congress' 
JOBS Act, which was the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, and it 
does so by ensuring that savings and loans holding companies, or SLHCs, 
are able to take advantage of the law's provisions that modify the 
thresholds by which bank holding companies are forced to register or 
allowed to deregister with the SEC.
  Most savings and loan holding companies are organized very similarly 
to bank holding companies and are subject to similar regulatory 
oversight. Because this is the case, it is appropriate now for us to 
correct this technical oversight in the law and streamline the 
registration and deregistration thresholds of savings and loan and bank 
holding companies.
  I will end now where I began, and that is to thank the leadership for 
bringing up this very important legislation, and the sponsors as well 
for working in a bipartisan manner. I ask that all Members support this 
commonsense legislation and the Senate consider it without any delay.
  With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I, once again, thank Chairman Garrett, chairman of the Subcommittee 
on Capital Markets, for his support and leadership on this bill. I 
particularly thank my cosponsors on this bill: Mr. Womack, with whom I 
have worked before; Mrs. Wagner; and Mr. Delaney. Additional cosponsors 
of the bill are Mr. Polis, Mr. Quigley, and Mr. Renacci. I thank them 
for their hard work.
  This is a rare example of a wise bipartisan bill that will achieve 
something important, which is to basically undertake a technical fix to 
the JOBS Act, passed into law in April of 2012, which allowed banks to 
put off becoming public until they reached a threshold of 2,000 
shareholders. That sounds like a small and technical point, but it put 
a tremendous burden on banks that perhaps were not ready to go public 
with more than 500 shareholders at the time.
  The legislation did not directly specify that savings and loans would 
also receive the same treatment. It was, I believe, the intent of 
Congress that that be the case. So H.R. 801 goes back to seek to remedy 
this issue.
  The Holding Company Registration Threshold Equalization Act, a rather 
awkward name for H.R. 801, extends the shareholder registration 
thresholds to savings and loan holding companies. This bill will ensure 
that savings and loan institutions operate under the same rules as 
banks, trying to create a more uniform and simple regulatory apparatus.
  This will help these institutions raise capital so that they have the 
resources to make the loans which drive the economic growth--the 
businesses, the colleges, the mortgages, the purchases that drive the 
economic growth of this country.
  Madam Speaker, again, I thank Mr. Garrett for his support. As we seek 
creative solutions to the Nation's job crisis, we should do everything 
we can to stimulate the consumer demand that we know drives so much of 
this economy. This bill is one small, commonsense step we can take in 
that direction.
  Again, I thank Mr. Womack, Mrs. Wagner, and Mr. Delaney for their 
leadership.
  With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GARRETT. I, too, thank the gentleman from Connecticut.
  Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman 
from Arkansas (Mr. Womack), the prime sponsor of the bill.
  Mr. WOMACK. Madam Speaker, my thanks to the subcommittee chairman and 
to Chairman Hensarling for shepherding this bill through committee and 
bringing it to the House floor. I, too, would like to express my 
gratitude to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, particularly 
Representative Himes, with whom I worked in the previous Congress on 
similar legislation that has already been articulated, and 
Representative Delaney and Mrs. Wagner for working with me on this 
bipartisan measure.
  As you know, Madam Speaker, we have been talking about jobs. The 
House has passed bill after bill to create a better environment for 
private sector growth and job creation. These conservative solutions 
would help create new jobs today, would make life for families better 
across the country, and would expand opportunity for everyone without 
expanding government. That is

[[Page H197]]

exactly what this bill, H.R. 801, does as well, and I am proud to rise 
and urge support for its passage.
  Small financial institutions are essential to the communities they 
serve. Their boards are made up of community leaders. Their employees 
are our neighbors. They sponsor Little League teams and softball 
leagues and support the United Way. On Friday nights, you see their 
logos on the scoreboards at high school football games.
  These institutions have a deep and abiding love for the towns that 
they serve, and our constituents--small business owners, farmers, and 
hardworking Americans--rely on them to meet payroll, to purchase 
equipment, or to buy a car or a home.
  Unfortunately, these institutions are coming under increased pressure 
from Washington, forcing them to spend more and more of their resources 
not to put capital into the community but to comply with onerous new 
regulations and requirements--requirements intended for larger banks--
instead of serving the needs of their communities. Our small community 
banks and savings and loan holding companies were not the cause of the 
financial crisis, and they should not be treated as though they were.
  That is why in the last Congress the House and Senate acted to 
eliminate some of these unnecessary burdens by passing the JOBS Act. 
Among other things, the bill raised the registration threshold for bank 
holdings companies from 500 to 2,000 shareholders and increased the 
deregistration threshold from 300 to 1,200 shareholders, better 
positioning banks to increase their business lending and, in turn, 
promote economic growth in our communities.
  Due to an oversight, the JOBS Act did not explicitly extend these new 
thresholds to savings and loan holding companies. As a sponsor of the 
original legislation, this wasn't our intent, and I supported report 
language in the House FY 2013 Financial Services and General Government 
appropriations bill clarifying that savings and loan holding companies 
should be treated in the same manner as bank and bank holding 
companies. Additionally, Representative Himes and I wrote to SEC 
Chairman Schapiro to ask that the SEC use its authority to carry out 
our original intent.

  Unfortunately, Madam Speaker, we are still without a successful 
resolution to the problem. At a time when our economy is struggling, 
Congress must address the issue and ease the burdens on these 
institutions to allow them to deploy more of their capital throughout 
the communities they serve. H.R. 801 does this by correcting this 
oversight and ensuring that savings and loan holding companies are 
treated in the same manner as bank and bank holding companies.
  I urge my colleagues to support this job-creating legislation.
  Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Schneider), my colleague.
  Mr. SCHNEIDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 801, the 
Holding Company Registration Threshold Equalization Act. This simple, 
bipartisan measure ensures consumers and businesses--the drivers of our 
economy--have access to the capital they need.
  The JOBS Act gave small community banks flexibility to raise capital 
without being required to comply with regulations specifically intended 
for the larger financial institutions that were responsible for the 
2008 financial crisis. This was a positive change that injected much-
needed capital into our local economies. However, the legislation did 
not specifically extend it to small savings and loans holding 
companies.
  It is important that we now put the savings and loans on par with our 
banks, retaining the equity and diversity conducive to the health of 
our banking system. By putting additional capital in the hands of our 
local savings and loans, we are helping consumers who are looking for 
home loans, our neighbors who are starting small businesses, and small 
businesses that are continuing to invest in their future.
  This may be a technical correction, but it remains a correction that 
has significant beneficial implications for our communities and for our 
continued economic recovery.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in support of this measure.
  Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield such time as she may 
consume to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner), also a prime 
sponsor of the legislation before us and a leading and active member on 
the committee.
  Mrs. WAGNER. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the sponsor of this 
legislation, Mr. Womack of Arkansas, as well as my Democrat colleagues, 
Mr. Himes of Connecticut and Mr. Delaney of Maryland, for their work on 
this important issue. I also want to thank the chairman of the 
subcommittee for his very hard work in getting this bill to the floor 
today.
  Mr. Speaker, the JOBS Act was a big win for the American economy. 
Since the law was passed a year and a half ago, a number of American 
businesses, including more than 40 biotechnology companies, as well as 
companies such as Kayak and Twitter, have gone public using provisions 
of the JOBS Act.
  Additionally, dozens of community banks across the country have 
already taken advantage of the updated SEC registration thresholds 
which made up title VI of the JOBS Act.
  Perhaps most encouraging is the frenzy of activity we have been 
seeing from entrepreneurs around the country, whether it is small 
technology startups lining up at the gate to begin crowdfunding or 
small businesses being able to share their story with more investors, 
now that they are allowed to advertise. We certainly see this kind of 
activity in the greater St. Louis region, which has become a major hub 
of innovation.

                              {time}  1315

  This is exactly what the JOBS Act was intended to do: allow 
entrepreneurs and small businesses to focus on innovating and creating 
jobs, not only complying with outdated government regulations.
  Unfortunately, as we all know, Washington tends to move a little 
slower than the private sector, which is why this legislation is 
necessary. Title VI of the JOBS Act updates outdated SEC registration 
thresholds for community banks, and it will allow banks to focus more 
time on serving their customers than on complying with unnecessary red 
tape. And while Congress intended to include savings and loans as a 
part of these new registration thresholds, the SEC, to date, has not 
interpreted the law in this way.
  Savings and loans perform essentially the same function as banks. 
They are overseen by the same regulators and are a pillar of many small 
towns and communities across this country.
  Missouri is home to about 20 savings and loans that could one day 
benefit from the provisions in title VI. Many of them have under $200 
million in assets and are located in rural areas that rely on their 
savings and loans for credit. Increasing the ability of these 
institutions to lend will help increase economic activity in Missouri 
and all around our great country.
  In order to put savings and loans on equal footing with community 
banks and to codify congressional intent, today we are considering H.R. 
801, which will extend the updated threshold in the JOBS Act to savings 
and loans. I am pleased to be a cosponsor of this legislation, because 
Congress must continue to take steps, no matter how incremental, to 
increase lending and investment in our economy.
  As an added bonus, this legislation comes to the floor today with 
strong bipartisan support, and I want to again thank my colleagues on 
both sides of the aisle for their work and their support on this issue, 
Mr. Speaker.
  I urge passage of the bill.
  Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, I would like to just close by thanking you 
for our partnership and our work on this bill. I hope we can do more of 
the same.
  I thank Mrs. Wagner and Mr. Delaney, cosponsors of this bill, and 
Chairman Garrett for pushing this through.
  As we have said, H.R. 801 is a good idea, a bipartisan idea, and 
something that I hope we can see the Senate take up.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge support of H.R. 801 and yield back the balance of 
my time.
  Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I was just thinking as I was sitting here.

[[Page H198]]

Speaker Boehner raised the question at the beginning of this 
administration, where are the jobs? And it is a question that I 
continue to get when I go home to my district, where are the jobs after 
all the years of this administration? And it is a question that I hear 
on the floor once in a while from Members who don't really follow the 
activity on the floor closely, where are the bills to help create jobs, 
as if we are not moving them.
  Well, today, Mr. Speaker, we have moved two more to the laundry list 
of other legislation out of this House to answer the question, how can 
we help facilitate and create more jobs for the American public? That 
is why I am so pleased to be here with the sponsors of this legislation 
in a bipartisan manner, H.R. 801, and to be able to get this through 
the House to answer the question, where are the jobs?
  Well, the House of Representatives continues in its tradition of 
passing legislation to answer that question, to make more jobs for the 
American public, to streamline the regulatory process, and to reduce 
the number of Americans who are no longer in the workforce whatsoever.
  So I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to not only 
pass the legislation today, but also to encourage the U.S. Senate, 
where some often say all good bills go to die, to pick up this 
legislation and pass it in a forthright manner.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Womack). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 801.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further 
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.

                          ____________________