Spencer Bachus

Mr. BACHUS

Mr. BACHUS. At this time, I yield 1 minute to the chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions, the gentlelady from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito), who also worked very hard on this legislation.

Mr. BACHUS. At this time, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert), a member of the committee, who sponsored and worked on these bills.

Mr. BACHUS. At this time, Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to another Illinois Congressman, Mr. Dold.

Mr. BACHUS. I would like to inquire, Madam Speaker, as to how much time remains on our side.

Mr. BACHUS. At this time, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert), the chairman of the subcommittee.

Mr. BACHUS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in strong support of the JOBS Act and urge the House to approve this bill today so that we can send it to the President for his immediate signature. The President has indicated that he strongly supports the legislation. The JOBS Act is a victory for unemployed Americans who are literally crying out for more jobs. It is a victory for small companies and for entrepreneurs who want Washington to reduce the red tape that stifles innovation, economic growth, and job creation. The JOBS Act will do exactly what its title says, jump-start our economy by creating new job opportunities for America's start-up companies and small businesses. And I would like to introduce into the Record some statistics on the number of jobs created by new companies. As chairman of the Financial Services Committee, I am proud that the JOBS Act is comprised of six pieces of legislation that originated in our committee and received overwhelming bipartisan support. In fact, managing this bill for the minority is the gentleman from Connecticut, who was the sponsor of one of those six bills; and I commend Mr. Himes for his work on all of these bills. The JOBS Act is proof that Republicans and Democrats can come together to find common ground, work together, and offer legislation that will help small businesses. Small businesses are the growth engine of our economy. A study between 1985 and 2005 found that 96 percent of the jobs created at new companies are created within 5 years of an IPO, and this will give those companies who want to offer an IPO the opportunity to do so at a much reduced cost. Nearly 65 percent of new jobs traditionally are created by small businesses. Now, that's not the case in this economic recovery. Almost all the job growth has come from large corporations, which is really the opposite of what you normally see. Small businesses have not been created and have not been growing as they should, and there are two reasons for that: one is regulation. These regulations are costly; they're time consuming; and they're simply inhibiting the growth of small businesses. The second reason is a lack of capital. Now, there are two ways traditionally to raise capital. One is to go to a bank, a lending institution, and ask for a loan. Well, because of tighter lending standards, these new companies don't have a track record, so they don't have a record of generating profits. Many of them are offering new services, new products that have not really found a market or have a small market. And there is a risk involved. So when banks turn those companies down, the other path is for someone to invest in those companies; and that is exactly what that bill does. It offers those companies an opportunity to receive investments, capital investments from individuals who want to participate not only in the risk but in the reward. With the JOBS Act, start-up companies--like those at the Innovation Depot in Birmingham, Alabama, where there are several start-up companies with new products, new services--the JOBS Act will allow those companies and companies throughout the United States, people with new ideas, new services, new products, like a Google of the future or an eBay or an Amazon. Take those companies, they didn't exist 20 years ago. Now they're the fastest-growing companies in America. There are other Googles, there are other eBays, there are other Amazons, there are other Costcos, there are other Chick-fil-A's that are just waiting to come to market. And for that reason, I want to commend the Senate, and I want to thank the sponsors of this legislation. Finally, I want to salute this House for coming together when it counted to address the lack of growth in jobs in our small businesses. There are some signs that hiring is coming back at larger companies, but not at our small businesses and startup companies. There are 2 main reasons for that The first is regulation--which has a bigger impact on small companies than large companies. The second is capital--it is harder for business startups to get traditional bank financing so they have to rely more on investors and capital markets for financing. The JOBS Act will make it easier for them to access capital, locate investors and go public. This bill is designed specially to help the type of small business startups and emerging growth companies that you find at places like the Innovation Depot. We know that small business is the growth engine of our economy. Nearly 65 percent of all new jobs created over the last 15 years were created by small businesses. Yet today, many small companies find it hard to obtain the investments and the financing they need to expand their operations and create jobs. That's why Congress mist cut the red tape that prevent many startup companies from raising capital and going public. The JOBS Act removes some of the unnecessary and outdated government barriers to capital formation--so entrepreneurs have more freedom to access capital, hire workers and grow their businesses. We need to do everything we can to ensure that America remains a country of opportunity, where jobs are created and small businesses flourish without being stifled by costly and unnecessary red tape. The JOBS Act will help foster an environment that allows our small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs to raise the capital needed to get job creation going again. I'm proud that all 6 bills that make up the JOBS Act originated in the Financial Services Committee and that all 6 received overwhelming, strong bipartisan support. It shows that Republicans and Democrats CAN find common ground and work together when it comes to helping America's small businesses. Companies obtain capital through either borrowing, from places like community banks, or through equity financing. Equity financing, in which investors purchase ownership stakes in a company in exchange for a share of the company's future profit, allows companies to obtain funds without having to repay specific amounts at particular times. The tightening of credit has made equity financing all the more important as a means of providing small companies with the capital they need to grow and create jobs. The JOBS Act will make it easier for small companies to access capital through both the public and private markets, which will facilitate economic growth and job creation. For example: Title 3 of the bill will allow what is known as ``crowdfunding''-- which will allow groups of investors to pool money, typically comprised of very small individual contributions, to support an effort such as growing a new company like those that are found at the Innovation Depot. Investments would be limited to an amount equal to or less than the lesser of $10,000 or 10 percent of the investor's annual income. Before the JOBS Act, the SEC had outdated regulations that prohibited this type of investment. Title 1 of the JOBS Act will provide smaller to mid-sized private companies with temporary exemptions from several government regulations, who could go public and raise capital needed to expand their business but for the expense associated with complying with them. These companies will have up to a five year timeframe to be on an ``On Ramp'' to comply with certain regulatory requirements (Section 404(b) of Sarbanes-Oxley or 953(b) of the Dodd-Frank Act). This ``On-Ramp'' status is designed to be temporary and transitional, encouraging small companies to go public but ensuring they transition to full compliance over time or as they grow large enough to have the resources to sustain the type of compliance infrastructure associated with more mature enterprises. A task force put together to study how to help smaller companies found that from 1980 to 2005, firms less than 5 years old accounted for all net U.S. job growth. On average, 92 percent of a company's job growth occurs after an ``initial public offering'' (IPO). Since 2006, companies have reported an average of 86 percent job growth since IPO. Titles 5 and 6 of the JOBS Act would allow private companies and community banks to increase the number of shareholders they have before they are forced to register with the SEC. This will save these companies regulatory compliance costs from regulations that are generally intended for large companies and instead give small companies and banks more readily available capital to hire new employees and lend to local businesses to expand. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BACHUS. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to add any extraneous material on this bill.

Mr. BACHUS. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 3606) to increase American job creation and economic growth by improving access to the public capital markets for emerging growth companies.

Mr. BACHUS

Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 11 a.m. tomorrow; when the House adjourns on that day, it adjourn to meet at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 13, 2012; when the House adjourns on that day, it adjourn to meet at 10 a.m. on Friday, March 16, 2012; and when the House adjourns on that day, it adjourn to meet at 2 p.m. on Monday, March 19, 2012.

Mr. BACHUS

Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that in the engrossment of H.R. 3606, the Clerk be authorized to correct section numbers, punctuation, and cross-references and to make other technical and conforming changes as may be necessary to accurately reflect the actions of the House.

Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. BACHUS

Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 4 minutes. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the JOBS Act and urge my House colleagues to approve this bill with an overwhelming bipartisan support. This is a legislative package that we believe will help jump-start our economy by creating new growth opportunities for America's small businesses, for start-up companies, and for entrepreneurs. As chairman of the Financial Services Committee, I'm happy to report to the House that the JOBS Act is comprised of six bills that originated in our committee and were approved by the committee. I'm also proud that these six bills received overwhelming, strong bipartisan support in our committee. It shows that Republicans and Democrats can come together, find common ground and work together to help America's small businesses. In fact, after being approved by the Financial Services Committee, several of these bills moved to the House floor and gained almost unanimous approval by the House and are now in the Senate. Not only do these measures have support from Republicans and Democrats, but we received a letter from the President this morning dated March 6 endorsing this legislation, strongly endorsing it. So it not only has the support of Republicans, Democrats, but also the President and the leadership. A consistent observation that I've heard and many others have heard from our business community is that the Federal Government is making it hard for them to expand and hire new workers with all of its new regulations, mandates and spending, as well as those not-so-new regulations. We've not recovered from this recession as quickly as we have from past recessions, and the reason is that we have not gotten the job growth that we had hoped, and the job growth we have gotten has been from large corporations. The difference in this recovery and the last one is not large companies not hiring--they are. It's small companies not hiring. Now, there are two reasons that small companies are not hiring, and these are small companies that generate traditionally 65 70 percent of the new jobs. The first is regulation and the second is capital. It's harder for these companies to get traditional bank financing. We all know that. We've talked to bankers. We've talked to small businesses. Because they can't always get bank financing, they must turn to investors and to the capital market. These bipartisan measures will make it easier for them to do that. They'll increase capital formation which spurs the growth in start-up companies, creates jobs, and encourages companies, small companies, to add jobs and to invest. We know that, as I've said, small businesses are the generators of our economy. In fact, large corporations, 70 80 percent of their business is from small businesses. That's why we, as Congress, hearing from our constituents, must cut the red tape that prevents our small businesses and entrepreneurs, the same people that created Google, that created Apple, that created a lot of our biotech companies, they were small businesses but now they are the growth businesses. They are creating the most jobs. This legislation will give them the freedom to access capital, to hire workers, and to grow jobs. I want to talk about just one of these bills, and that is the bill that came out of our committee with strong bipartisan support; and I want to commend three gentlemen, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Fincher), the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Carney) and Mr. Himes, who crafted it. It allows the IPO market, which has been in a funk, to come back and create small companies and allow them to capitalize. I reserve the balance of my time. Statement of Administration Policy H.R. 3606--Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (Rep. Fincher, R Tennessee, and 53 cosponsors, March 6, 2012) The Administration supports House passage of the Rules Committee Print of H.R. 3606. Helping startups and small businesses succeed and create jobs is fundamental to having an economy built to last. The President outlined a number of ways to help small businesses grow and become more competitive in his September 8, 2011, address to a Joint Session of Congress on jobs and the economy, as well as in the Startup America Legislative Agenda he sent to the Congress last month. In both the speech and the agenda, the President called for cutting the red tape that prevents many rapidly growing startup companies from raising needed capital. The President is encouraged to see that there is common ground between his approach and some of the proposals in H.R. 3606. The Administration looks forward to continuing to work with the House and the Senate to craft legislation that facilitates capital formation and job growth for small businesses and provides appropriate investor protections.

Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 3606 and to insert extraneous materials therein.

Mr. BACHUS

Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 880 on final passage of H.R. 527, I was on the House floor, but inadvertently missed the voted. Had I been recorded, I would have voted ``aye.'' Stated against:

Mr. BACHUS

Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, families across America have to live within their means and balance their budgets. Sometimes it means making hard decisions and giving up things that you might like but can't afford. For too long, Washington has avoided making those choices. Its practice has not been to control spending but to keep borrowing more and more. For families, this approach results in bankruptcy. For countries, it leads to the financially and socially perilous situation that we are seeing in Greece and other debt-ridden nations. It is very clear that the only sure way to bring long-term fiscal discipline to Washington is to adopt a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. The Balanced Budget Amendment will provide us with a disciplined framework for the important decisions on entitlement changes and other spending reforms that will be needed to place America on firmer fiscal ground. Amending the Constitution is not something that should ever be done lightly. But I truly believe that what is at stake here is the financial integrity of our country and the future prosperity of our children and grandchildren. Our parents left us with a stronger America. We do not want to leave them with a weaker one.

Mr. BACHUS

Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Chairman, I feel like I'm having a dream, and in that dream my colleague, Patrick McHenry, has legislation on the floor, and President Obama has endorsed that legislation. I feel like I ought to wake up and find out that that was a dream. But in reality, it's actually what's happening here today. I told Mr. McHenry that I would like unanimous consent to ask that we call this the McHenry-Obama friendship bill, but I won't do that. Let me say this: The President did issue a statement yesterday, and in that statement, it says that the administration supports House passage of H.R. 2930. It goes on to say, in the President's September 8 address to the Joint Session of Congress on jobs and the economy, he called for cutting away redtape that prevents many rapidly growing startup companies from raising needed capital, including through crowdfunding exemption from the requirement to register public securities offerings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He goes on to say that he believes that this bill will make it much easier for entrepreneurs to raise capital and create jobs. And it will. Last night, I was at a Faith & Politics dinner where our friends, Congressman Steny Hoyer and Senator Roy Blunt, were receiving the John Lewis-Amo Houghton Award. As we know, both those colleagues are bridge builders. The gentleman at the table next to me, and these were people that were supporting Faith & Politics, said to me, I appreciate the fact you're going to bring a crowdfunding bill to the floor of the House. And I was somewhat amazed, because a few months ago--I have to admit, I'm not a high techie like the President or Congressman McHenry--I really didn't know the difference between clown funding and crowdfunding before we started talking about this bill. I said to him, how do you know about this bill? He said, well, I'm an executive with Facebook. And he said many companies similar to Facebook, and you mentioned this in your earlier speech, in other countries they raise money through crowdfunding. And he said they even do it here, but they avoid the law. It is a modern thing to do. It's like Facebook, it's like Google, and it's like BlackBerry several years ago. It's something that we didn't know about. But we do now, and we do need to keep our laws current. I do also close by commending Congressman Perlmutter for making this bill a better bill and one that protects consumers. With this legislation, we'll move this provision into the 21st century and bring it up to date with modern ways to finance businesses. That will give us an advantage that presently is a disadvantage when it comes to competing with some of our foreign competition. We certainly want to level that playing field and create jobs, and this bill does that.

Mr. BACHUS

Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today in strong support of H.R. 2940, the Access to Capital for Job Creators Act. Throughout this week, the House is considering several jobs bills that are sponsored by members of the Financial Services Committee and that have recently been approved by the committee. They have been sponsored by both Republicans and Democrats. Yesterday, we passed two of those bills overwhelmingly, and today we will consider the other two. Presently, we're considering H.R. 2940, which was introduced by Mr. McCarthy, a member of the committee and of leadership. What this bill does is create jobs. It gives entrepreneurs the ability to raise capital, and that capital translates into jobs. The President, in his State of the Union, called on the Congress to create ways, additional ways, alternative ways for entrepreneurs to raise capital. He also called on Congress to address burdensome regulations and restrictions imposed on American businesses that create American jobs, and that's what brings us on the floor today. I received a letter last week from Emanuel Cleaver, a member of our committee who voted in favor of all four of these bills in committee. And this is what he said--and this is, I think, what we're doing today: ``As we attempt to breach the divide in Congress, I want to share an insightful civility story. ``Two young boys went to a neighborhood park to have some play time before their respective mothers called them in for dinner. But upon arriving, a controversy ensued. One boy said, `let's play on the seesaw.' `No,' the other replied, `I want to play catch.' One boy got on the seesaw, but because no one sat on the other end, he never got off the ground. The other boy threw the ball, but no one threw it back. That sounds a lot like the two sides in Congress: Both sides have come to Congress for the same purpose but with different priorities. ``As representatives of the people of the greatest Nation on Earth, we must be willing to alter one preference in order to acquire another, often resulting in accommodation of both.'' It was signed by my colleague, Emanuel Cleaver, a Member of Congress from Missouri. That's why we're here today. We're here today to set aside our differences and do what the American people have asked us to do, and that's create jobs. I can't think of a better way to create jobs, particularly for small and middle-sized businesses, than the legislation of the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), and I'm happy to report that the Democratic members of Financial Services overwhelmingly agreed with us. Yesterday the job numbers came out, and it showed that while large corporations actually lost 1,000 jobs last month, small- and medium- sized businesses created 107,000 or 108,000 jobs. They did that despite what was described as ``restrictions.'' The greatest restriction was the lack of capital. There are two ways to obtain funds needed to hire new employees. One is to go to the bank and borrow it. Anyone on the Financial Services Committee will tell you that when entrepreneurs go to the bank to get a loan for their business, they're often told, I'm sorry, it's too risky. There is an alternative to loans. And we all know loans can be hard to come by for new businesses and for small businesses who create almost all the innovation and new jobs in our country. The other way is to attract capital, people willing to invest and have the opportunity to share in the profits and share in the growth of that company but, at the same time, willing to take the risk. That's what the gentleman from California's bill does, in a nutshell. It makes it easiest for people to invest in companies. We've often said that in America one of the dreams--and we've had a difficult time with this recently--is homeownership. Another is to either own a business or invest in a business that does well. How many of us have thought, I wish we had invested in Apple. I wish we had invested in Google. I wish we'd gotten in on the ground floor. The gentleman from California's bill allows investors to get in on the ground floor without having to spend $200,000 or $300,000 to the Securities Exchange Commission, and put their money that they have earned, not the government, to work. And let me say this: when it comes to investing our money, I'll trust individual investors every time over the government. With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the rule just adopted, I call up the bill (H.R. 2940) to direct the Securities and Exchange Commission to eliminate the prohibition against general solicitation as a requirement for a certain exemption under Regulation D, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 2940 and to insert extraneous material therein.

Mr. BACHUS

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

Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. You've heard from a member of the Commerce Committee, Ms. Eshoo, who I think said it well when she said that we're modernizing, we're updating a rule which had come to restrict job growth. Secondly, she mentioned technology. We know that small businesses are the innovators. In fact, you look at Google, you look at Apple, you look at Facebook, these companies just in the past two or three decades started off as small businesses and they were able to grow. With the passage of this legislation, we believe that path will be an easier path. Sixty-five percent of the jobs created over the last 15 years have been in small business. As every speaker has acknowledged, if there is a time to encourage job creation and capital formation, that time is here. I urge the Members to vote in favor of this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. Earlier I said that the American citizens, our American citizens, would like to see Republicans and Democrats work together to tackle the challenges facing our country, and this bill is a great example of that. Congresswoman Anna Eshoo from California introduced this bill, along with my colleague Mr. Schweikert from Arizona, and they are meeting that challenge. As I said, it's a bipartisan effort. I know she deserves much credit for this legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BACHUS. I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from Illinois (Mrs. Biggert).

Mr. BACHUS. At this time I would like to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert), the main sponsor of this bill.

Mr. BACHUS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to add extraneous materials on the bill.