lcalvobartolome/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2013-04-16 00:00:00

Promotion and Expansion of Private Employee Ownership Act of 2013 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend to all domestic corporations, including S corporations, provisions allowing deferral of tax on gain from the sale of employer securities to an S corporation-sponsored employer stock ownership plan (ESOP).

Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to establish the S Corporation Employee Ownership Assistance Office to foster increased employee ownership of S corporations.

Amends the Small Business Act to define "ESOP business concern" and allow such a concern to continue to qualify for loans, preferences, and other programs under such Act.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2013-04-25 00:00:00

Shareholder Protection Act of 2013 - Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require that any solicitation of a proxy, consent, or authorization with respect to any security of an issuer: (1) describe the specific nature (to the extent known) and total amount of expenditures proposed for political activities for the forthcoming fiscal year but not yet authorized by a vote of the issuer's shareholders, and (2) provide for a separate shareholder vote to authorize such proposed expenditures.

Prohibits an issuer from making an expenditure for political activities in any fiscal year unless: (1) such expenditure is of the nature of those proposed by the issuer according to the requirements of this Act, and (2) authorization for such expenditure has been granted by votes representing a majority of outstanding shares.

Deems a violation of this requirement to be a breach of the fiduciary duty of the officers and directors who authorized such expenditure. Subjects officers and directors who authorize the expenditure without prior shareholder authorization to joint and several liability to any shareholder or class of shareholders for the amount of such expenditure.

Requires certain institutional investment managers to disclose annually in mandatory reports how they voted (proxies) in certain shareholder votes.

Prohibits any person from bringing any civil, criminal, or administrative action against an institutional investment manager, or any of its employees, officers, or directors, based solely upon the investment manager's decision to divest from, or not to invest in, securities of an issuer because of expenditures for political activities made by that issuer.

Requires the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to direct the national securities exchanges and national securities associations to prohibit the listing of any equity security of an issuer whose corporate bylaws do not expressly provide for a vote of the issuer's directors on any individual expenditure for political activities in excess of $50,000. Requires an issuer to make public, within 48 hours, the individual votes of the directors regarding any such expenditure.

Directs the SEC to: (1) require issuers to disclose expenditures for political activities made during the preceding quarter and the individual votes by board members authorizing such expenditures, and (2) make such reports publicly available through the SEC website.

Requires the SEC to make annual assessments of the compliance by public corporations and their management with the reporting and disclosure requirements of this Act, and the Comptroller General (GAO) to evaluate periodically the effectiveness of SEC oversight of these requirements.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2013-05-07 00:00:00

Amends the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) to exempt, from the rules of prudential regulators for swap dealers and major swap participants with respect to initial and variation margin requirements for swaps not cleared by a registered derivatives clearing organization, those swaps in which one of the counterparties: (1) is eligible for an exception from clearing requirements for certain significant price discovery agreements, contracts, or transactions in a commodity exempt from regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC); or (2) satisfies specified criteria governing treatment of affiliates in connection with clearing requirements.

Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, regarding registration and regulation of security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants, to exempt from initial and variation margin requirements for swaps not cleared by a registered derivatives clearing organization a security-based swap in which one of the counterparties: (1) qualifies for a specified exception from clearing requirements, or (2) satisfies certain criteria governing the treatment of affiliates.

 Requires that the amendments to CEA made by this Act be implemented: (1) without regard to federal information policy requirements or the notice and comment requirements of federal administrative procedure; and (2) through promulgation of an interim final rule, pursuant to which public comment will be sought before a final rule is issued.Limits the disregard of such federal information policy and notice and comment requirements solely to changes to rules and regulations, or proposed rule and regulations, that are limited to, and directly a consequence of, the amendments to CEA made by this Act.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2013-06-18 00:00:00

Real Estate Investment and Jobs Act of 2013 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to increase from 5% to 10% the allowable ownership interest in real estate investment trust (REIT) stock for purposes of tax exemptions allowed by the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act relating to foreign investment in United States real property interests.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2014-01-14 00:00:00

Small Business Mergers, Acquisitions, Sales, and Brokerage Simplification Act of 2014 - Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to exempt from its registration requirements certain merger and acquisition (M&A) brokers and associated persons.

Denies such registration exemption, however, to brokers who: (1) receive, hold, transmit, or have custody of any funds or securities to be exchanged by parties to a transfer of ownership of an eligible privately held company; or (2) engage on behalf of an issuer in a public offering of securities that are either subject to mandatory registration, or with respect to which the issuer must file periodic information, documents, and reports.

Prohibits the construction of this Act to limit any other authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to exempt any person, or any class of persons, from any provision of this Act, including any related rule or regulation.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2014-03-12 00:00:00

Bond Transparency Act of 2014 - Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to define a "riskless principal transaction" as any transaction the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) identifies as one, but primarily one in which a broker, dealer, or municipal securities dealer acts on a customer order to buy or sell either municipal securities or corporate debt securities while also acting as principal for its own account in order to complete the transaction.

Requires a broker or dealer, at or before completion of the transaction, to make a markup disclosure in writing to the customer of the difference between either: (1) the customer's purchase price and the broker or dealer's purchase price; or (2) the customer's sale price and the broker or dealer's sale price.

Subjects riskless principal transactions in corporate debt securities to the same markup disclosure requirements as those for riskless principal transactions in municipal securities.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2014-04-03 00:00:00

Bolstering Our Nation's Deficient Structures Act of 2014 or the BONDS Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to build America bonds, to: (1) make permanent the issuance authority for such bonds and the authority for payments to bond issuers, (2) make phased reductions in the credit percentage to bondholders and the percentage of payments to issuers of such bonds, (3) make federal wage rate and other grant requirements applicable to such bonds, (4) allow refundings of currently-issued bonds, and (5) allow the use of such bonds to fund capital expenditures for levees and flood control projects.

Provides for an increase in payments to issuers of build America bonds to compensate for reductions in the amount of such payments due to sequestration.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2014-06-26 00:00:00

Directs the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to use its authority (including emergency powers) to: (1) to curb immediately the role of excessive speculation in any contract market within its jurisdiction and control on or through which energy futures or swaps are traded; and (2) eliminate excessive speculation, price distortion, sudden or unreasonable fluctuations, or unwarranted changes in prices, or other unlawful activity that is causing major market disturbances that prevent the market from accurately reflecting the forces of supply and demand for energy commodities.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2014-07-15 00:00:00

Risk Hedging Protection Act of 2014 - Amends the Commodity Exchange Act, with respect to futures commission merchants registration requirements and duties, to require that any rules or regulations requiring a futures commission merchant to maintain a residual interest in accounts held for the benefit of customers in amounts at least sufficient to exceed the sum of all their customers' uncollected margin deficits must also provide that such a merchant meets the residual interest requirement as of the end of each business day calculated as of the close of business on the previous business day.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2014-09-18 00:00:00

Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to establish a 10-year statute of limitations governing an action or proceeding by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a civil monetary penalty.

Tolls this statute of limitations any time an alleged violator is either absent from the United States or has no reasonably ascertainable place of abode or work within it.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2014-12-04 00:00:00

Derivatives End-Users Clarification Act - Amends the Commodity Exchange Act and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to revise the treatment of affiliate transactions that may be exempt from clearing requirements to authorize such an exemption only if the affiliate enters into the swap to hedge or mitigate the commercial risk of the person that is not a financial entity (as under current law), on the condition that an appropriate credit support measure or other mechanism shall be used if the hedge or mitigation of commercial risk is addressed by entering into: (1) a swap with either a swap dealer or major swap participant, or (2) a security-based swap with a security-based swap dealer or major security-based swap participant.

 Applies this subtitle only to swaps or security-based swaps entered into after enactment of this Act.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2014-12-12 00:00:00

Ending Insider Trading in Commodities Act - Amends the Commodity Exchange Act to make it unlawful for any large financial institution, either directly or indirectly, to purchase or sell any swap, any commodity in interstate commerce, or any contract for future delivery of any commodity while in possession of material, nonpublic information related to the storage, shipment, or use of the commodity arising from the institution's ownership or interest in a business or facility used to store, ship, or use the commodity.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-01-21 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

SBIC Advisers Relief Act of 2015

(Sec. 2) Amends the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 to exempt specified advisers of small business investment companies (SBICs) from certain: (1) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registration requirements with respect to the provision of investment advice relating to venture capital funds, and (2) SEC registration and reporting requirements with respect to assets under management of private funds.

(Sec. 4) Provides the same exemption with respect to any state or local law requiring the registration, licensing, or qualifications of investment advisers.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-02-03 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Small Business Mergers, Acquisitions, Sales, and Brokerage Simplification Act of 2015

 (Sec. 2) This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to exempt from its registration requirements certain merger and acquisition brokers and associated persons.

A merger and acquisition broker shall not be exempt from registration, however, if the broker: (1) receives, holds, transmits, or has custody of any funds or securities to be exchanged by parties to a transfer of ownership of an eligible privately held company; or (2) engages on behalf of an issuer in a public offering of securities that are either subject to mandatory registration, or with respect to which the issuer must file periodic information, documents, and reports.

Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit any other authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission to exempt any person, or any class of persons, from any provision of this Act, including any related rule or regulation.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-02-10 00:00:00

Security in Bonding Act of 2015

Revises requirements related to assets pledged by a surety and to surety bond guarantees subject to the Small Business Investment Act of 1958. (A surety bond is a three-party instrument between a surety who agrees to be responsible for the debt or obligation of another, a contractor, and a project owner.)

Declares that if another applicable law or regulation permits the acceptance of a bond from a surety that is not subject to specified federal law, and is based on a pledge of assets by the surety, the assets pledged by such surety shall: (1) consist of eligible obligations given as security instead of surety bonds; and (2) be submitted to the government official required to approve or accept the bond, who shall deposit the assets with a depository (the Secretary of the Treasury, a federal reserve bank, or a depository designated by the Secretary).

Amends the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 to increase from 70% to 90% of the loss incurred and paid by a surety authorized to issue bonds (subject to Small Business Administration [SBA] guarantee) the SBA's guarantee of surety bonds. The SBA is required, under the guarantee, to indemnify a surety, under the Small Business Investment Program, against loss from a breach of the terms of a bid bond, payment bond, performance bond, or ancillary bonds, by a principal on any total work order or contract amount at the time of bond execution that does not exceed $6.5 million, as adjusted for inflation.

Requires the Comptroller General (GAO) to study:

 all instances during the 10-year period before enactment of the Act in which a surety bond proposed or issued by a surety in connection with a federal project was: (1) rejected by a federal contracting officer; or (2) accepted by one, but was later found to have been backed by insufficient collateral or to be otherwise deficient or with respect to which the surety did not perform; the consequences to the federal government, subcontractors, and suppliers of the instances; and the percentages of all federal contracts that were awarded to new startup businesses (including new startups that are small disadvantaged businesses or disadvantaged business enterprises), small disadvantaged businesses, and disadvantaged business enterprises as prime contractors in the two-year period before and the two-year period after enactment of this Act, together with an assessment of the impact of this Act and its amendments upon such percentages.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-02-11 00:00:00

Subsidy Reserve Act of 2015

 Amends the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to require a nonbank financial company supervised by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve and each bank holding company with total consolidated assets of $500 billion or more to establish and maintain a Subsidy Reserve.

Instructs the Board to:

 establish a formula for determining the financial benefit received by such companies as a result of the expectations on the part of their shareholders, creditors, and counterparties that the government will shield them from losses in the event of their failure; require them to apply the formula annually to their annual financial statement; and maintain the resulting amount in their Subsidy Reserve, in addition to any such previous amounts. Prohibits a decrease in the amount of funds in the Subsidy Reserve unless a company makes a sale of assets, spins off a subsidiary, or makes a similar divestiture. Permits the decrease only in an amount that reflects the amount of such sale, spin off, or similar divestiture, either on a pro-rata basis or according to the risk weighting of the property sold, spun off, or divested.

Permits amounts in the Subsidy Reserve to be taken into account when determining the companies' capital for purposes of meeting any regulatory capital requirements.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-02-26 00:00:00

Ban Insider Trading Act of 2015

This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to make it unlawful to purchase or sell any security, or securities-based swap agreement, that is based upon information that the person knows (or should know) is material inside information.

"Inside information" is defined as information that is nonpublic and obtained:

 illegally, directly or indirectly from an issuer who expects either confidentiality or that it will only be used for a legitimate business purpose, or in violation of a fiduciary duty. "Material information" is defined as information relating to an issuer or to a security which, if it were made public, would likely have a significant effect upon the security's price.

Subjects a person to liability to prosecution for trading in prohibited securities while in possession of material nonpublic information if the person, without a legitimate business purpose, discloses intentionally to another person information that the discloser knows (or should know) is material inside information.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-02-27 00:00:00

Futures Investor Protection Act

 Establishes the Futures Investor Protection Corporation (FIPC) as a nonprofit corporation, which shall be neither an agency nor establishment of the federal government.

Declares FIPC to be a membership corporation whose members comprise all persons registered as a futures commission merchant with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Grants FIPC all powers conferred upon the Security Investors Protection Corporation (SIPC). Sets forth FIPC corporate structure.

Requires FIPC to: (1) establish, and make deposits into and payments from a FIPC fund in the same manner in which SIPC has established and is authorized to make deposits into and payments from the SIPC fund; and (2) impose upon its membership assessments subject to the same rules that apply to imposition of assessments upon SIPC members.

Amends the Commodity Exchange Act to prescribe suitability rules governing a futures commission merchant's recommendations for a customer.

Grants the CFTC enforcement powers.

Directs the CFTC to review specified guidelines governing establishing account classes and determining the basis for pro rata shares (proof of claims guidelines).
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-02-27 00:00:00

Keep Repos to Maturity on Balance Sheet Act of 2015

 Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission, in establishing accounting principles or standards for purposes of the securities laws, to require that a repurchase-to-maturity transaction be treated as a secured borrowing in which the transferred asset serves as collateral.

 Defines "repurchase-to-maturity transaction" as one in which: (1) a financial asset is transferred in exchange for cash, other financial assets, or letters of credit; and (2) the transferor and the transferee agree, concurrently that, at the asset's maturity, the transferee may either return the transferred asset (or a substantially similar asset) to the transferor, or redeem the transferred asset from the issuer of the transferred asset.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-02-27 00:00:00

Nothing Off Balance Sheet Act of 2015

 Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission, in establishing accounting principles or standards under the securities laws, to require any person subject to those principles or standards to show all transactions on that person's balance sheet.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-02-27 00:00:00

Markets and Trading Reorganization Act 

 Establishes the Securities and Derivatives Commission as an independent regulatory body.

Directs the Commission to establish the following principal divisions: (1) a Markets and Trading Division with oversight of market conduct and utilities, the conduct of market professionals, and self-regulatory organizations with regard to such market professionals (including related examination functions); (2) an Issuers and Financial Disclosures Division exercising oversight of the issuance of securities (including investment companies and related rules and examinations); and (3) an Enforcement Division to enforce all Commission rules.

Transfers to such Commission all functions of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and of the Securities and Exchange Commission, including their respective officers and components.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-02-27 00:00:00

Ban Insider Trading Act of 2015

This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to make it unlawful to purchase or sell any security, or securities-based swap agreement, that is based upon information that the person knows (or should know) is material inside information.

"Inside information" is defined as information that is nonpublic and obtained:

 illegally, directly or indirectly from an issuer who expects either confidentiality or that it will only be used for a legitimate business purpose, or in violation of a fiduciary duty. "Material information" is defined as information relating to an issuer or to a security which, if it were made public, would likely have a significant effect upon the security's price.

Subjects a person to liability to prosecution for trading in prohibited securities while in possession of material nonpublic information if the person, without a legitimate business purpose, discloses intentionally to another person information that the discloser knows (or should know) is material inside information.