OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Fair Investment Opportunities for Professional Experts Act

Floor Speech

Date: Feb. 1, 2016
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Finance and Banking

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Mr. HILL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman, and Mr. Carney, my colleague on the distinguished minority, for this bill. I also want to thank Mr. Schweikert for his work on developing H.R. 2187, Fair Investment Opportunities for Professional Experts Act, which makes reg D offerings and private placements more effective by broadening the definition of an accredited investor to account for educational or professional expertise.

Because of significant costs and barriers to raising capital in the U.S. public markets, many of our small companies raise start-up funds or expansion funds in the private market, and many of those private market transactions are through accredited investors.

The current definition focuses only on financial status of the investor, and as a result, only wealthy individuals typically can participate in reg D offerings.

H.R. 2187 expands the accredited investor definition, recognizing that the ability to participate is not based on an asset test, but on their sophistication and knowledge.

I have been in this business before I was in Congress on and off for three decades, and I know that many of our Nation's accountants, stock brokers, venture capitalists, and engineers have money management experience or have a series 7 FINRA license, they work in money management, they work in specific kinds of industries, but they are not able to invest in private placements due to the fact that they don't meet this income or asset test.

Mr. Schweikert's bill revises these rules so that investment and finance professionals who have this kind of level of professional sophistication are now treated as accredited investors, irrespective of whether they meet an arbitrary test.

It is a matter, Mr. Speaker, of basic fairness. The government should not limit investing options to only investors they deem worthy.

Expanding the accredited investor definition will not only increase investment opportunities for more Americans, but will help us grow thousands of small and emerging markets that struggle to raise capital.

I thank the gentleman from Arizona for all of his work on this commonsense legislation. I enjoyed working with him on it.

I am proud to support this bill, and I urge my colleagues to do so.

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