Fair Investment Opportunities for Professional Experts Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman, and I also thank my friend, Mr. Carney.

This is one of those occasions where we actually get to show up here and have something that is bipartisan that we agree upon. But partially because being my piece of legislation, and something we have been working on for a while, I would like to tell a quick story of where this sort of came from conceptually.

About 4 years ago, we were doing a little townhall at that time before redistricting in Tempe, Arizona, and most of the discussion in this townhall was a discussion about the haves and have nots, and why do some people seem to be making wealth and others are not. We sort of tried to actually address it intellectually with some analysis of what are the barriers out there. You are a middle income, hardworking family, and you have some talents; what is your optionality to be able to grow into that next tier of assets, of wealth? This actually became part of that discussion, that we actually have had this barrier now for decades that say we are going to judge you on your income and your wealth and that income and wealth is your threshold that says you get to invest in something over here, not your knowledge.

There was a gentleman in the audience who stood up and said: I have got a story for you. I have a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. I work at the Intel plant in Chandler. I have some friends that started a business a year or two ago. I am an expert. I have a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and I worked with these guys for years. They started a business, and I am not allowed to invest in it because I don't meet the income and assets threshold.

That is partially what we have accomplished here. The neat thing that has gone back and forth in discussion with my Democrat friends and many of my friends on our side working the bill--it is not everything I wanted--but conceptually it is a terrific idea that income, your wealth is not the only prerequisite for your right to invest in something, that it also can be your knowledge and your talent. If we really care about everyone getting a fair chance at that American Dream, we need to do more like this where you get judged by what you know, your expertise, and not just the fact that you already have made it.

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Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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