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Watch Subcommittee Republican Leader Huizenga’s remarks here or by clicking the image above.
Read excerpts from Subcommittee Republican Leader Huizenga’s remarks as delivered:
“Today, my Democrat colleagues, once again, are seeking to hijack our securities laws to push left-wing political and social agendas, despite dressing it up as investor protection, once again.
“Make no mistake. This bill will increase costs on public owned companies, discourage private companies from going public, and frankly, could encourage not only private companies to stay private, but could entice public companies to go back to being private companies.
“This is going to result in fewer investment opportunities for everyday American investors, also called our constituents, who are saving for retirement, a college education, or just looking to build a better life.
“In short, this bill will increase the number of government-directed, mandatory disclosure requirements on publicly traded companies, which will increase compliance costs on companies and divert company resources that could have been used to create more jobs.”
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“Let’s be clear, my friends across the aisle are using the federal securities laws to implement their partisan wish list of social policy priorities. They are doing it through a mandatory disclosure regime that, at best, is tangentially related to investment decisions.
“To be clear: if information presents a material investment risk to a public company, the company is— wait for this— already required to disclose it. That information is out there for those companies that have material risk.
“Materiality has been and continues to be the touchstone of our public company disclosure regime for more than eight decades and has actually even been affirmed by the Supreme Court.
“It has held the test of time and we cannot simply discard it to appeal to the Democrats’ progressive agenda.”
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“The SEC knows how to regulate materiality. That’s their expertise. They are not climatologists or climate scientists. They are not election law experts, and they most certainly do not know international tax law. That is the purview of EPA, NOAA, the FEC, and the IRS.
“Furthermore, smaller public companies will bear the burden of the additional compliance costs. This bill fails to account for the impact it will have on smaller businesses and companies, especially those who are looking to go public. Or maybe I should say, were looking to go public? They certainly do not have the infrastructure or resources to spend on fixed costs of compliance like this.
“H.R. 1187 will result in fewer investment opportunities for American investors. It will discourage private companies from going public and encourage public companies to go private to avoid these burdensome new, non-material and useless, disclosure requirements.
“Sadly, this will hurt the everyday investors, our constituents, that the Democrats claim to want to help. In other words, this bill stands to harm everyone saving for retirement, a college education, or just looking to build a better life.”
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