I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1062 
To improve the consideration by the Securities and Exchange Commission 
of the costs and benefits of its regulations and orders. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 12, 2013 
Mr. GARRETT (for himself, Mr. HURT, Mr. GRIMM, Mr. NEUGEBAUER, Mrs. 
BACHMANN, Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan, Mr. MCHENRY, Mr. FINCHER, 
Mr. ROSS, Mr. CAMPBELL, Mrs. WAGNER, Mr. MULVANEY, Mr. 
HULTGREN, Mr. PITTENGER, Mr. GARY G. MILLER of California, and 
Mr. CONAWAY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To improve the consideration by the Securities and Exchange 
Commission of the costs and benefits of its regulations 
and orders. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This title may be cited as the ‘‘SEC Regulatory Ac-
countability Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. CONSIDERATION BY THE SECURITIES AND EX-
CHANGE COMMISSION OF THE COSTS AND 
BENEFITS OF ITS REGULATIONS AND CER-
TAIN OTHER AGENCY ACTIONS. 
Section 23 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 
(15 U.S.C. 78w) is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(e) CONSIDERATION OF COSTS AND BENEFITS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Before issuing a regulation 
under the securities laws, as defined in section 3(a), 
the Commission shall— 
‘‘(A) clearly identify the nature and source 
of the problem that the proposed regulation is 
designed to address, as well as assess the sig-
nificance of that problem, to enable assessment 
of whether any new regulation is warranted; 
‘‘(B) utilize the Chief Economist to assess 
the costs and benefits, both qualitative and 
quantitative, of the intended regulation and 
propose or adopt a regulation only on a rea-
soned determination that the benefits of the in-
tended regulation justify the costs of the regula-
tion; 
‘‘(C) identify and assess available alter-
natives to the regulation that were considered, 
including modification of an existing regulation, 
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together with an explanation of why the regula-
tion meets the regulatory objectives more effec-
tively than the alternatives; and 
‘‘(D) ensure that any regulation is acces-
sible, consistent, written in plain language, and 
easy to understand and shall measure, and seek 
to improve, the actual results of regulatory re-
quirements. 
‘‘(2) CONSIDERATIONS AND ACTIONS.— 
‘‘(A) REQUIRED
ACTIONS.—In deciding 
whether and how to regulate, the Commission 
shall assess the costs and benefits of available 
regulatory alternatives, including the alternative 
of not regulating, and choose the approach that 
maximizes net benefits. Specifically, the Com-
mission shall— 
‘‘(i) consistent with the requirements 
of section 3(f) (15 U.S.C. 78c(f)), section 
2(b) of the Securities Act of 1933 (15 
U.S.C. 77b(b)), section 202(c) of the In-
vestment Advisers Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 
80b–2(c)), and section 2(c) of the Invest-
ment Company Act of 1940 (15 U.S.C. 
80a–2(c)), consider whether the rule-
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making will promote efficiency, competi-
tion, and capital formation; 
‘‘(ii) evaluate whether, consistent with 
obtaining regulatory objectives, the regula-
tion is tailored to impose the least burden 
on society, including market participants, 
individuals, businesses of differing sizes, 
and other entities (including State and 
local governmental entities), taking into ac-
count, to the extent practicable, the cumu-
lative costs of regulations; and 
‘‘(iii) evaluate whether the regulation 
is inconsistent, incompatible, or duplicative 
of other Federal regulations. 
‘‘(B) ADDITIONAL
CONSIDERATIONS.—In 
addition, in making a reasoned determination of 
the costs and benefits of a potential regulation, 
the Commission shall, to the extent that each is 
relevant to the particular proposed regulation, 
take into consideration the impact of the regu-
lation on— 
‘‘(i) investor choice; 
‘‘(ii) market liquidity in the securities 
markets; and 
‘‘(iii) small businesses. 
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