Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WELCH. First of all, it's very refreshing that we have legislation that's focused on improving the business climate that we're doing together, and we've had some internal squabbles about whose name should go first. I'm not sure it amuses the American people. But the bottom line here that should encourage the American people is that we have bipartisan legislation that is going to do positive things for the business climate, certainly in Vermont and around the country.

I want to thank my colleagues, Mr. Fincher, Mr. Himes, Mr. Carney, and Mr. Schweikert, for working together so well to bring this legislation to the floor. And there are a number of good things here.

We don't have to exaggerate this as the answer to the real challenge we have in creating jobs. But you know what? Just selling this for what it is is a good thing, and it's a good thing because it does practical things to help us improve our business climate, particularly for small businesses, and for the rare time that we have this opportunity, we're doing it together.

But the legislation, overall, does a number of good things. The IPO on-ramp that is going to allow companies that need access to capital fewer barriers to get access to capital, particularly our small companies, where the cost of putting together an initial public offering is very significant, oftentimes prohibitive, that's a very good thing.

The Access to Capital for Job Creators Act that removes the regulatory ban that prevents small, privately held companies from using advertisements to solicit investors for private offerings, so they are allowed to let the word go out that they are open for business and they want investors, that's a good thing.

The Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act permits crowdfunding to finance new businesses by allowing companies to accept and pool donations up to $1 million. Again, a very practical step to take. Good step to take.

The Small Companies Capital Formation Act that Mr. Schweikert, my colleague from Arizona, pioneered raises the offering threshold for companies exempted from registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from $5 million, the threshold, to $50 million.

Mr. Schweikert, again, you've been busy. The Private Company Flexibility and Growth Act raises the threshold for mandatory SEC registration for companies from 500 to 1,000 shareholders. We've got a company in Newport, Vermont, that has been under a lot of regulatory pressure. They can't go over that 500 threshold. This is going to be very helpful, Madam Chairman, to that company to get access to capital, and it's going to make certain that the SEC regulations are still complied with.

Then the provision that raises the threshold for mandatory SEC registration for community banks from 500 to 1,000 shareholders, that's going to have a direct impact on a bank in Newport, Vermont.

So these are all practical steps. I don't think we need to oversell it. It's not the step that is going to get us down to an unemployment rate of 1 or 2 or 3 percent that all of us aspire to, and there's a tendency in this body sometimes to oversell what we're doing. But you know what? We shouldn't minimize what we're doing as well. And these, again, practical, sensible small business-oriented steps that are taken on a bipartisan basis. This is a good thing that we're doing.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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