House Panel Passes Bill to Boost Capital to Small Companies

By Melanie Waddell

July 25, 2017 at 02:25 PM

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The House Financial Services Committee passed three bills out of committee Tuesday — including one that aims to give small businesses more access to capital.

H.R. 2864, the "Improving Access to Capital Act," sponsored by Reps. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona, and Trey Hollingsworth, R-Indiana, is designed to help small companies obtain more capital and give investors greater investment opportunities by allowing smaller reporting companies to raise capital from the public through a streamlined Securities and Exchange Commission review process.

The bill passed by a vote of 59-0.

Also passing out of committee was H.R. 1624, the "Municipal Finance Support Act of 2017," sponsored by Rep. Luke Messer, R-Indiana.

The bill, which passed by a 60-0 vote, would require federal banking regulators to treat certain municipal securities held by financial institutions as high-quality liquid assets.

This change, the bill states, "will protect financial institution investment in local communities by including investment grade municipal bonds in bank liquidity buffers."

H.R. 3110, the "Financial Stability Oversight Council Insurance Member Continuity Act," sponsored by Reps. Randy Hultgren, R-Illinois and Maxine Waters, D-Calif., would permit FSOC's independent member with insurance expertise, after the expiration of his or her term, to serve on the FSOC for up to 18 months after the date when the term of service ends or until a successor to such member is appointed and confirmed.

The bill passed by a vote of 60-0.

Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the chairman of Senate Banking Committee, recently teamed up with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to introduce similar legislation, S. 1463.

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