Increasing Investor Opportunities Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SELF. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of my amendment to H.R. 3383 to strike section 307.

Section 307 directs the SEC to issue new rules forcing issuers with multi-class share structures to include prescribed ownership and voting-power disclosures in annual-meeting proxy or consent materials, and potentially other filings.

That is statutory micromanagement and another compliance mandate. More fundamentally, Washington should not be holding investors' hands. The key facts about control and voting rights are already available to the market through public filings and governing documents, and investors can decide for themselves whether they want to buy into a multi-class structure.

My amendment keeps this package focused on capital formation and avoids turning it into another paperwork bill.

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Mr. SELF. I say, again, Mr. Chairman, the information that she is referencing is already readily discoverable by investors, and they have the choice whether or not they want to invest in a multi-class structure.

I will tell you, Mr. Chair, this section 307 specifically targets directors, director nominees, named executive officers, and any holder with 5 percent or more of total combined voting power. It requires their share ownership and voter power to be expressed as percentages.

Mr. Chairman, investors are not children. The Federal Government should not be in the business of holding investors' hands over congressionally mandated proxy script disclosures. This section turns a capital formation package into another compliance mandate by hardwiring a one-size-fits-all disclosure regime into statutes instead of letting the markets and existing disclosures do their jobs.

Striking section 307 keeps the INVEST Act focused on expanding opportunity and liquidity rather than adding a new paperwork burden for public companies. If the goal of this bill is to increase investor opportunities and expand public markets, then Congress should be cutting friction, not adding a new compliance hook that falls on public companies and ultimately on shareholders.

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Mr. SELF. Mr. Chair, as the chairwoman referenced, organizations that want to do this are already doing it voluntarily. We should not add micromanagement to it.

Mr. Chair, I urge adoption of this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. SELF. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.
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Mr. SELF. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of my amendment of H.R. 3383, the INVEST Act.

Section 105 creates offices of small business within key SEC divisions to coordinate on capital formation priorities. My amendment makes one commonsense clarification. It says this subsection may not be construed to authorize expenditures for additional full-time equivalent employees.

In other words, if the SEC wants better coordination for small businesses, it should do so with existing resources, not by treating this bill as a blank check for new hires. This keeps the policy goal intact while protecting taxpayers.

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Mr. SELF. Mr. Chair, I yield to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner).

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Mr. SELF. Mr. Chair, I will point out that those words are dangerous words, ``do what we can,'' because normally that means we are going to spend a lot more money. Congress, in this case, should not accidentally write an open-ended staffing authorization into statute just because we want better cooperation. This is a narrow, practical guardrail that keeps the INVEST Act focused on capital formation instead of quietly growing bureaucracy.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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