08 Feb House Passes More Small Business Bills

Last week the House of Representatives passed seven bills focused on small business that had come from the Financial Services Committee. They now move to the Senate. Here’s a brief summary of 3 of the bills. First, the SEC Small Business Advocate Act (H.R. 3784) establishes a permanent semi-independent Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation as well as a permanent Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee. The idea is to be a sort of ombudsman for small business (for example, the Advocate cannot come from existing SEC staff) and focused on opportunities for capital formation which seems pretty cool to me.

The Fair Investment Opportunities for Professional Experts Act (H.R. 2187)(“FIOPEA”?) focuses on accredited investors. It directs the SEC to consider people accredited if they have certain professional licenses, use a broker or certain banks to advise them in their investment decision, or take a test to become accredited administered by FINRA. I say: duh.

Last is the Small Business Capital Formation Enhancement Act (H.R. 4168). This bill requires follow-up after the annual statutorily mandated SEC government-business forum on small business. We make recommendations at each year’s forum. The bill would force the SEC to review each of the forum’s findings and recommendations and issue a public statement promptly assessing it and disclosing the action, if any, the SEC intends to take with respect to it. This is all groovy stuff, let’s hope these bills can pass and hit the President’s desk soon.