[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 74 (Monday, May 1, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H2980-H2981]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1645
SMALL BUSINESS CAPITAL FORMATION ENHANCEMENT ACT
Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 1312) to amend the Small Business Investment Incentive Act of
1980 to require an annual review by the Securities and Exchange
Commission of the annual government-business forum on capital formation
that is held pursuant to such Act, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1312
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 ``Small Business Capital
Formation Enhancement Act''.
SEC. 2. ANNUAL REVIEW OF GOVERNMENT-BUSINESS FORUM ON CAPITAL
FORMATION.
Section 503 of the Small Business Investment Incentive Act
of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 80c-1) is amended by adding at the end the
following:
``(e) The Commission shall--
``(1) review the findings and recommendations of the forum;
and
``(2) each time the forum submits a finding or
recommendation to the Commission, promptly issue a public
statement--
``(A) assessing the finding or recommendation of the forum;
and
``(B) disclosing the action, if any, the Commission intends
to take with respect to the finding or recommendation.
``(f) Forum Findings.--Nothing in this section shall
require the Commission to agree to or act upon any finding or
recommendation of the forum.''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Arkansas (Mr. Hill) and the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Velazquez)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas.
General Leave
Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on this bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Arkansas?
There was no objection.
Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of H.R. 1312, the Small Business
Capital Formation Enhancement Act, which would require the Securities
and Exchange Commission to respond to the recommendations from its
annual forum on small business capital formation.
Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, and, according
to the SBA, have provided 55 percent of all jobs and 66 percent of all
net new jobs over the past 40 years. These small
[[Page H2981]]
businesses are intimately familiar with their businesses and the
regulatory environment, and who better to provide insights to
regulators and lawmakers on how to best provide and promote capital
formation and remove unnecessary regulatory barriers and burdens?
Nearly four decades ago, in 1980, Congress recognized the importance
of our small-business owners and their having a voice and sharing their
recommendations with the SEC, and Congress required the SEC to conduct
an annual forum to review the current status and issues surrounding
small business capital formation. But while the Commission is required
to conduct this forum, its obligation goes no further.
Though the SEC often praises this small business forum and the
insights and recommendations from the small business community, the SEC
has no obligation to respond to or act on the forum's recommendations
and findings and has rarely done so. For example, many of the
provisions of the JOBS Act came from recommendations from the small
business forum, but it was Congress who had to move forward with these
ideas, not the SEC.
This commonsense bill introduced by Mr. Poliquin and Mr. Vargas would
require the SEC to formally respond to these recommendations just like
they legally have to acknowledge and respond to recommendations from
their Investor Advisory Committee. Similar legislation passed the House
last Congress by a nearly unanimous vote, and, earlier this year, H.R.
1312 passed the House Financial Services Committee by a unanimous vote.
I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this bill,
and I thank, again, my good friends from Maine and from California for
their hard work on this bipartisan bill that ensures the voice of our
small business community is heard.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1312, a commonsense measure
that will ensure the SEC responds to recommendations that will reduce
barriers to small businesses' capital formation. Access to capital is
the lifeblood of every business. As ranking member of the House Small
Business Committee, I hear this on a near daily basis. It is as true
today as it was 65 years ago when Congress created the Small Business
Administration.
Since that time, Congress has taken steps to better understand the
needs of our small businesses and find ways to improve access to
capital. In 1980, we created the Government-Business Forum on Small
Business Capital Formation at the SEC. This body helps policymakers
learn about unnecessary impediments to small business capital formation
and address how they can be eliminated or reduced. However, the SEC
isn't currently required to act on the forum's recommendations.
The Small Business Capital Formation Enhancement Act changes the
SEC's obligation by requiring the Commission to respond to the
recommendations made by the annual Government-Business Forum. This bill
is modeled after a similar provision in the Dodd-Frank Act requiring
the SEC to respond to the recommendation of the Investor Advisory
Committee.
However, there are important distinctions between the recommendations
of the IAC and the forum. Specifically, the IAC is limited by statute
to 23 members. By contrast, the forum is open to all public and private
participants. As a result, the IAC has only issued 12 recommendations
since its first meeting in 2012. During the same timeframe, the forum
issued 98 recommendations.
While I understand the desire to have the SEC respond to each of the
forum's recommendations, I would remind my colleagues that the SEC has
the important duty to police our financial markets. Therefore, I hope
my colleagues will remember these additional duties and set appropriate
funding levels for the SEC to ensure agency resources are not being
diverted from its crucial examination and enforcement activities.
I would like to thank Mr. Poliquin and Mr. Vargas for crafting this
bipartisan bill to ensure that the voice of our small business
community is heard.
Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to support this legislation, and I
reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, again, I appreciate the gentlewoman from New
York's views and her helpful work on this legislation.
We have lost over the last 20 years some 50 percent of our public
companies. When I was getting out of college, one of the great dreams
in business would be that you could have a company that was so
successful that you could go public. Over the years, obviously that
process has made it more and more difficult for our entrepreneurs to
pursue their dream of a public company.
So what better way to make sure their voice about our rules, our
laws, the process of being public, and the process of registering and
disclosing is all made in a way that does not discourage our
entrepreneurs and our small-business people from pursuing that dream of
going public.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maine (Mr.
Poliquin), my distinguished friend who serves on the House Financial
Services Committee and is a gentleman who is a voice for small business
at every meeting of the House Financial Services Committee.
Mr. POLIQUIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman, and I appreciate it
very much. I do want to thank the Congresswoman from New York and also
Congressman Juan Vargas of California who stepped up as the lead
cosponsor of this legislation.
As Mr. Hill mentioned a moment ago, about two-thirds of our new jobs
in the last decade have been created by small business. This is the
bloodline of our economy, and certainly in Maine, Mr. Speaker, where we
are a State and a district of small businesses, this is very particular
to my interest.
Those of us who have run small businesses know that one of the
biggest challenges you have is how to borrow money--access to capital--
because unless you have access to capital and unless you have the funds
you need to grow and expand, you can't create new opportunities and new
jobs for our kids and our grandkids. So access to capital is absolutely
critical when it comes to growing our economy and providing more
opportunities for the next generation.
As has already been said today, the SEC holds these annual forums
where small-business leaders who are on the ground creating jobs and
those in the public sector get together, and they review and explore
new ways and better ways to change the regulations and the rules we
have in this country such that access to capital is enhanced.
What better idea; what more common sense do we need than to have a
bill, H.R. 1312, that I am very proud to sponsor, that requires the SEC
to assess every recommendation by this forum every year--not
necessarily act upon it, but take it off the shelf, assess it, and
determine if action should be taken.
I want to thank all the folks who have participated in our forums
over the years, both the public and the private sector, and I ask, Mr.
Speaker, that all my colleagues in this House, Republicans and
Democrats, please support H.R. 1312.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 1312, as amended.
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. HILL. 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.
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