May 21, 2015
Full Committee Moves 13 Bills from Cap Markets Subcommittee
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05), Chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises, issued the following statement after the Financial Services Committee passed his bill, H.R. 1525, the Disclosure Modernization and Simplification Act of 2015 with unanimous support.
“The Financial Services Committee continued its important work to help eliminate burdensome red tape and make our government more efficient, effective, and accountable to the American people,” said Garrett. “As part of the JOBS Act, Congress directed the SEC to review its existing disclosure requirements and identify ways to make our current disclosure regime less burdensome for issuers and more useful for investors, but the agency has yet to act. The Disclosure Modernization and Simplification Act of 2015 will fix that by eliminating the unnecessary bloat of our current disclosure regime, while at the same time ensuring that investors receive all of the material information they need in order to make informed investment and voting decisions.”
The Disclosure Modernization and Simplification Act would require the SEC to take steps to modernize the current disclosure regime in three ways:
1) Require the SEC to eliminate any outdated or duplicative disclosure requirements that are immaterial to investors and to further scale disclosures for emerging growth companies and small issuers.
2) Allow issuers to file a summary page of their annual report that would include cross references to material information included in their 10-k.
3) Require the SEC to produce a broad study on how best to utilize technology in order to improve delivery and presentation systems for disclosures.
In addition to Rep. Garrett’s Disclosure Modernization and Simplification Act of 2015, the Committee also passed a number of bills previously passed by the Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee.
H.R. 432, the “SBIC Advisers Relief Act of 2015”
H.R. 686, the “Small Business Mergers, Acquisitions, Sales, and Brokerage Simplification Act of 2015”
H.R. 1334, the “Holding Company Registration Threshold Equalization Act of 2015”
H.R. 1525, the “Disclosure Modernization and Simplification Act of 2015”
H.R. 1675, the “Encouraging Employee Ownership Act of 2015”
H.R. 1723, the “Small Company Simple Registration Act of 2015”
H.R. 1847, the “Swap Data Repository and Clearinghouse Indemnification Correction Act of 2015”
H.R. 1965, the “Small Company Disclosure Simplification Act”
H.R. 1975, the “Securities and Exchange Commission Overpayment Credit Act”
H.R. 2064, the “Improving Access to Capital for Emerging Growth Companies Act”
H.R. 2354, the “Streamlining Excessive and Costly Regulations Review Act”
H.R. 2356, the ‘‘Fair Access to Investment Research Act of 2015”
H.R. 2357, the ‘‘Accelerating Access to Capital Act of 2015”
