SEC Regulatory Accountability Act

Bill: 114-hr-5429
Sponsor: Rep. Garrett, Scott [R-NJ-5]
Introduced: 2016-06-09 in the House
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Corporate finance and management
Financial services and investments
Government studies and investigations
Securities
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Small business

Summary:
action_date: 2016-06-09
text: 

SEC Regulatory Accountability Act

 
This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to direct the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), before issuing a regulation under the securities laws, to:
 
 
identify the nature and source of the problem that the proposed regulation is designed to address in order to assess whether any new regulation is warranted;
 
use the SEC Chief Economist to assess the costs and benefits of the intended regulation and adopt it only upon a reasoned determination that its benefits justify the costs;
 
identify and assess available alternatives that were considered; and
 
ensure that any regulation is accessible, consistent, written in plain language, and easy to understand.
 
 
The SEC shall:
 
 
consider the impact of the regulation upon investor choice, market liquidity, and small business; and
 
explain in its final rule the nature of comments received concerning the proposed rule or rule change as well as its response to those comments.
 
 
The SEC shall: (1) review its existing regulations periodically to determine if they are outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome; and (2) modify, streamline, expand, or repeal them.
 
Whenever it adopts or amends a major rule, the SEC shall state in its adopting release the regulation's purposes and intended consequences, the post-implementation quantitative and qualitative metrics to measure the regulation's economic impact, the assessment plan to be used under the supervision of the Chief Economist to assess whether the regulation has achieved those purposes, and any foreseeable unintended or negative consequences.
 
The assessment plan must: (1) consider the regulation's costs, benefits, and intended and unintended consequences; and (2) specify the data to be collected, the methods for its collection and analysis, and an assessment completion date.
 
The bill expresses the sense of Congress that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board should also follow the requirements set forth by this bill.

action_date: 2016-09-28
text: 
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary of that version is repeated here.)
 

SEC Regulatory Accountability Act

 
This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to direct the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), before issuing a regulation under the securities laws, to:
 
 
identify the nature and source of the problem that the proposed regulation is designed to address in order to assess whether any new regulation is warranted;
 
use the SEC Chief Economist to assess the costs and benefits of the intended regulation and adopt it only upon a reasoned determination that its benefits justify the costs;
 
identify and assess available alternatives that were considered; and
 
ensure that any regulation is accessible, consistent, written in plain language, and easy to understand.
 
 
The SEC shall:
 
 
consider the impact of the regulation upon investor choice, market liquidity, and small business; and
 
explain in its final rule the nature of comments received concerning the proposed rule or rule change as well as its response to those comments.
 
 
The SEC shall: (1) review its existing regulations periodically to determine if they are outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome; and (2) modify, streamline, expand, or repeal them.
 
Whenever it adopts or amends a major rule, the SEC shall state in its adopting release the regulation's purposes and intended consequences, the post-implementation quantitative and qualitative metrics to measure the regulation's economic impact, the assessment plan to be used under the supervision of the Chief Economist to assess whether the regulation has achieved those purposes, and any foreseeable unintended or negative consequences.
 
The assessment plan must: (1) consider the regulation's costs, benefits, and intended and unintended consequences; and (2) specify the data to be collected, the methods for its collection and analysis, and an assessment completion date.
 
The bill expresses the sense of Congress that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board should also follow the requirements set forth by this bill.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-09-28
text: Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 622.
action_date: 2016-09-28
text: Reported by the Committee on Financial Services. H. Rept. 114-799.
action_date: 2016-09-28
text: Reported by the Committee on Financial Services. H. Rept. 114-799.
action_date: 2016-06-16
text: Ordered to be Reported by the Yeas and Nays: 34 - 25.
action_date: 2016-06-16
text: Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
action_date: 2016-06-15
text: Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
action_date: 2016-06-09
text: Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
action_date: 2016-06-09
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2016-06-09
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2016-05-17
text: Hearings Held by the Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Prior to Introduction and Referral.