By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Alabama Congressmen Mike Rogers (R) from Anniston and Spencer Bachus (R) from Vestavia both released statements applauding the passage of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act).
The bipartisan bill was designed to jumpstart the economy and job creation by the Financial Services Committee chaired by Rep. Spencer Bachus. The JOBS Act is made up of six bills that will make it easier for small companies and entrepreneurs to get capital and investors and it makes the IPO (Initial Public Offering) process easier to make a corporate public. The JOBS Act was approved by the House by a margin of 390 to 23. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Stephen Fincher, a member of the Financial Services Committee.
During debate of the bill Chairman Bachus said on the House floor, “I rise in strong support of the JOBS Act and urge the House to approve this bill with an overwhelming bipartisan vote.“ “As Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, I’m happy to report that the JOBS Act is comprised of 6 bills that originated in the Committee and were approved by the Committee. I’m also proud that all 6 bills received overwhelming, strong bipartisan support in our Committee. And it shows Republicans and Democrats can find common ground and work together when it comes to helping America’s small businesses. In fact, after being approved by the Financial Services Committee, several of these bills included in the JOBS Act went on to gain almost unanimous approval by the House.”
After passage Representative Mike Rogers said, “With the current state of our economy, Congress should be doing everything it can to help the heartbeat of our local economies – small businesses and entrepreneurs – have the opportunity to grow and create good paying jobs for hard-working Alabamians.
“This bipartisan bill will help cut through some of the red tape these small businesses face. I am pleased this bill passed with my support and hope Congress will continue to stay focused on job creation,” Rogers said.
Chairman Bachus said, “Not only do these measures have support from Republicans and Democrats in Congress, they are also supported by the President and by entrepreneurs, many of whom gathered with the Speaker of the House, our Majority Leader and bill sponsors last week in front of the Capitol to enthusiastically endorse the JOBS Act.”
Rep. Bachus continued, “A consistent observation that I’ve 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 regulations, mandates and spending.” “We have not recovered from this recession as quickly as we have from past recessions and the reason for that is we have not gotten job growth from small business, which is where the majority of new jobs are created.” “Hiring is coming back at larger companies, but not at our smaller businesses and startup companies. There are two reasons for that. The first is regulation. The second is capital. It is harder for these companies to get traditional bank financing so they rely more on investors and capital markets for financing.”
Congressman Bachus released a written statement explaining just what the JOBS Act is supposed to do: “Research indicates that 90 percent of job creation for public firms occurs after they go public. A recent report by the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness found that had the United States maintained the level of start-up activity that it saw in 2007, two million more Americans would be working today. The JOBS Act removes regulatory barriers to capital formation by:
•Reducing the cost of going public. This provision is from H.R. 3606, the Reopening American Capital Markets to Emerging Growth Companies Act of 2011, introduced by Reps. Stephen Fincher and John Carney. The bill creates a new class of public companies called emerging growth companies that will make it easier for more companies to access the capital markets by reducing the cost of going public for small and medium size companies.
- Removing a regulatory ban that prevents small companies from using advertisements. This provision is from H.R. 2940, introduced by Rep. Kevin McCarthy. The bill removes the regulatory ban that prevents small, privately held companies from using advertisements to solicit investors.
- Removing SEC restrictions that prevent companies from raising equity capital from a large pool of small investors. This provision is from H.R. 2930, introduced by Rep. Patrick McHenry. The bill removes SEC restrictions that prevent “crowd funding” so entrepreneurs can raise equity capital from a large pool of small investors who may or may not be considered “accredited” by the SEC.
- Increasing the offering threshold for companies exempted from SEC registration. This provision is from H.R. 1070, the “Small Company Capital Formation Act,” which was introduced by Representative Schweikert. The bill makes it easier for small businesses to go public by increasing the offering threshold for companies exempted from SEC registration from $5 million to $50 million.
- Raising the threshold for SEC registration. This provision is from H.R. 2167, the “Private Company Flexibility and Growth Act,” which was introduced by Representative Schweikert. The bill removes an impediment to capital formation for small companies by raising the shareholder threshold for mandatory registration with the SEC from 500 to 1,000 shareholders.
Modernizing the threshold for SEC registration and deregistration for bank holding companies. This provision is from H.R. 4088, the “Capital Expansion Act,” which was introduced by Representative Ben Quayle. The bill raises the threshold for mandatory registration under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 from 500 shareholders to 2,000 shareholders for all banks and bank holding companies and raises the shareholder deregistration threshold from 300 shareholders to 1,200 shareholders.”
To read Rep. Mike Rogers statement
http://mike-rogers.house.gov/press-release/rogers-praises-passage-jobs-act
For more information about the JOBS Act, click here.
http://bachus.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1253
