Reward Work Act

Bill: 116-s-915
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Baldwin, Tammy [D-WI]
Introduced: 2019-03-27
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures

Corporate finance and management

Labor-management relations

Licensing and registrations

Securities

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Latest action: action_date: 2019-03-27
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Summaries:
action_date: 2019-03-27
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Reward Work Act </b></p> <p>This bill prohibits issuers from purchasing their own securities on a national exchange. The bill also requires one-third of&nbsp;an issuer's&nbsp;board of directors&nbsp;to be&nbsp;elected by employees in order&nbsp;for the issuer to be allowed&nbsp;to register securities. </p>

tv_txt: II 116th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 915 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES March 27, 2019 Ms. Baldwin (for herself, Ms. Warren , Mrs. Gillibrand , and Mr. Sanders ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs A BILL To prohibit public companies from repurchasing their shares on the open market, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Reward Work Act . 2. Prohibition on stock buybacks on the open market (a) Definitions In this section— (1) the terms equity security , exchange , and issuer have the meanings given the terms in section 3 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ( 15 U.S.C. 78c ); and (2) the term national securities exchange means an exchange registered under section 6 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ( 15 U.S.C. 78f ). (b) Prohibitions Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no issuer may purchase an equity security of the issuer on a national securities exchange. (c) No force or effect Section 240.10b–18 of title 17, Code of Federal Regulations, shall have no force or effect. (d) Rule of construction Nothing in this section may be construed to affect tender offers subject to section 240.13e–4 and sections 240.14e–1 through 240.14f–1 of title 17, Code of Federal Regulations. 3. Worker representation on corporate board of directors (a) Definitions In this section— (1) the term director has the meaning given the term in section 3 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ( 15 U.S.C. 78c ); and (2) the term employee has the meaning given the term in section 2 of the National Labor Relations Act ( 29 U.S.C. 152 ). (b) Registration requirements for securities Section 12(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ( 15 U.S.C. 78l(b)(1) ) is amended by adding at the end the following: (4) No issuer may register securities on a national exchange unless at least 1/3 of the issuer’s directors are chosen by the issuing company’s employees in a one-employee-one-vote election process. . (c) Policy The Securities and Exchange Commission, in consultation with the National Labor Relations Board, shall promulgate regulations— (1) to ensure that director elections at issuing firms are fair and democratic; and (2) to ensure that 1/3 of an issuer’s board of directors will be composed of employee representatives within 2 years of the date of enactment of this Act. 4. Regulations The Securities and Exchange Commission shall promulgate regulations to direct national securities exchanges and issuers, as defined in section 2(a), to comply with this Act and the amendments made by this Act.