House Approves Bipartisan Small Business Bill
Washington,
December 7, 2017 -
WASHINGTON – The House passed bipartisan legislation on Thursday to simplify regulations for small business owners who want to sell or merge their companies with new owners.
The “Small Business Mergers, Acquisitions, Sales and Brokerage Simplification Act of 2017 (H.R. 477)” alleviates costs to small business owners by simplifying the securities registration system for mergers and acquisition brokers who help transfer the ownership of small, privately held companies. The bill disqualifies “bad actors” from utilizing the simplified process and does not allow transactions involving shell companies.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), said “This commonsense regulatory reform promotes economic growth and development, strengthens job creation and preservation, and provides immediate and substantial relief for small business professionals. Business brokerage services are critically important to entrepreneurs who start, build, and eventually want to sell their private companies. In today’s divisive political environment, H.R. 477 demonstrates that Congress can act in a bipartisan manner to strengthen our economy and positively impact the lives of hardworking Americans.”
“Unfortunately, our small businesses labor under a gazillion regulations, some of which are quite good and quite helpful, but in the aggregate, they can be a very heavy burden and cost upon our small businesses. One is an unnecessary registration system for small business brokers,” said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). “This is commonsense reform, it is a balanced reform, it's good for small business, it is bipartisan, and I urge all of my colleagues to adopt H.R. 477.”
The bill passed the House 426-0.
