Industry trade groups will be pushing the Republican-controlled Congress to focus on issues such as retirement income, tax reform, housing finance, cybersecurity and legislation to allow the Securities and Exchange Commission to collect user fees to help boost advisor exams.
Under the GOP-controlled Congress, the Investment Adviser Association will be looking to gain backers of bipartisan user-fee legislation, says Karen Barr, IAA's president and CEO.
The "Republican leadership will be looking to show that they can get things done and improve operation of the federal government, and this presents us with an opportunity to gain Republican support for [a] user-fee bill in both chambers," Barr says.
Barr adds that IAA is hoping to "impress upon lawmakers on both sides of the aisle" that a user-fee bill "is sorely needed," as it is "sound bipartisan public policy that will make the SEC more effective, better protect investors and not cost the taxpayers a nickel."
The House user-fees bill, H.R. 1627, the Investment Adviser Examination Improvement Act of 2013, which was co-sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., currently has 25 co-sponsors, with Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., being the most recent one to throw her support behind the bill on Sept. 15.
In the new Congress, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., will take over for retiring Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., as head of the Senate Banking Committee, while the House Financial Services Committee will continue to be chaired by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas. Both of these committees have SEC oversight responsibilities.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, will replace Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The House Ways and Means Committee, the tax writing committee in Congress, will likely be headed by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
