Improving Access to Small Business Information Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. KIM of California. Madam Speaker, I thank Chairwoman Wagner for yielding.

I rise in strong support of my bill. This is a bipartisan bill, H.R. 1548, the Improving Access to Small Business Information Act.

H.R. 1548 is very simple. The legislation would amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to specify that certain actions by the Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation are not a collection of information under the Paper Reduction Act.

Currently, the office must adhere to a prolonged process to get approval from OMB on surveys that could help get better information on the capital formation challenges small businesses and their investors face on a daily basis.

Former Director of the SEC's Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation, Martha Miller, told our office, ``The office went through a yearlong process just to collect registration information for our annual forum and ask a few basic questions to understand the audience attending.''

So, by the time her office got a response from OMB, the circumstances of the economy had changed, and some of the survey questions were outdated and did not serve their intended purpose.

Rather than answering these unrelated questions to the difficulties facing small businesses, it would have been so much more effective for small business owners and investors attending the forum to be focused on analyzing the substantive issues and share effective perspectives on capital formation policies.

The SEC's Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation is the primary office that looks to advance the interests of the small businesses and their investors at the SEC and in the capital markets.

With the ever-changing economic and regulatory environment, the office is required to adapt quickly to the needs of the small businesses and gather timely feedback to improve capital raising policy.

H.R. 1548 reduces red tape and streamlines access to tools that the office can utilize to gather more effective and timely data. The better information that the office can gather, the better Congress and the public can identify policy gaps and facilitate small business capital formation.

I thank Chairman James Comer and House Oversight and Accountability Committee staff for working with my staff and Financial Services Committee staff to address standing policy on the PRA and get H.R. 1548 through the finish line.

I also thank my colleague and friend, Mr. Gottheimer of New Jersey, for co-leading H.R. 1548, the Improving Access to Small Business Information Act, with me. I urge my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 1548.

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