lcalvobartolome/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2016-06-21 00:00:00

This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to declare that fines collected for violations of the rules of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board shall be deposited and credited as general revenue of the Treasury.

Currently such fines must be be equally divided between the board and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The bill repeals the requirement that any such fines collected by a registered securities association be accounted for by the association separately from certain other fines collected and be allocated two-thirds to the association and one-third to the board.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is amended to repeal the requirement for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to use funds generated from the collection of monetary penalties for a merit scholarship program for undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in accredited accounting degree programs.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2016-06-28 00:00:00

Derivatives Oversight and Taxpayer Protection Act

This bill amends the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) to require the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to collect fees to recover the costs of its regulatory services and its annual appropriation from Congress.

The bill increases penalties for CEA violations, removes the Department of the Treasury's authority to exempt foreign exchange swaps or forwards from CFTC regulation, and requires collection of margin on inter-affiliate swaps.

Swaps requirements enacted by the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010 that ordinarily do not apply to activities outside the United States are made applicable to swaps transactions in which a financial entity domiciled or organized in the United States bears swaps-related risks. But the CFTC may allow a swaps transaction involving a subsidiary entity that is majority owned or controlled by a financial entity domiciled or organized in the United States to be conducted under a foreign jurisdiction's rules and oversight if the foreign rules are no less stringent than U.S. rules.

The CFTC must: (1) make data concerning swap data repository registrations available to other financial regulatory agencies, and (2) revoke the license of swap dealers that the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission have found are not providing accurate data in standardized formats that allow aggregated analysis by regulators.

The bill repeals a safe harbor provision under federal bankruptcy law that protects a contractual right to liquidate the amount due on a swap agreement because of a debtor's bankruptcy case. The removal of this safe harbor subjects swap agreements to the regular bankruptcy procedures that automatically stay claims against a debtor.

The bill amends the Financial Stability Act of 2010 to require Federal Reserve Board (FRB) risk-based capital requirements and leverage limits for nonbank financial companies supervised by the FRB and bank holding companies with total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more to include the fair value and potential future exposure of derivatives exposures, without recognizing the benefits of netting arrangements. Exceptions are provided for certain formal netting agreements with counterparties or with clearing organizations that meet financial standards approved by the FRB and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

The CFTC, the Comptroller of the Currency, the FDIC, and the FRB must report on the ability of clearinghouses to endure systemic stress events.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2016-06-28 00:00:00

Municipal Advisor Choice Act

This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to provide that an issuer of municipal securities is not required to retain a municipal advisor prior to issuing securities.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2016-07-13 00:00:00

Putting Main Street FIRST Act or the Putting Main Street FIRST: Finishing Irresponsible Reckless Speculative Trading Act

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to impose a .03% excise tax on the purchase of a security if: (1) such purchase occurs on, or is subject to the rules of, a qualified board or exchange located in the United States; or (2) the purchaser or seller is a U.S. person.

A "security" includes: (1) any share of stock in a corporation, (2) any partnership or beneficial ownership interest in a partnership or trust; (3) any note, bond, debenture, or other evidence of indebtedness; and (4) derivatives that meet specified criteria.

The tax applies to transactions with respect to a derivative if: (1) the derivative is traded on, or is subject to the rules of, a qualified board or exchange located in the United States; or (2) any party with rights under the derivative is a U.S. person.

The bill exempts from such tax: (1) initial issues of securities; (2) any note, bond, debenture, or other evidence of indebtedness which is traded on or is subject to the rules of, a qualified board or exchange located in the United States, and has a fixed maturity of not more than 100 days.

The tax applies to transactions by a controlled foreign corporation and must be paid by its U.S. shareholders.

The bill allows an offset against such tax for contributions to certain tax-favored savings accounts.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2016-07-14 00:00:00

This bill amends the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970 to revise provisions related to determining a customer's "net equity" (the dollar amount of the customer's accounts) for purposes of a claim.

In general, such a determination shall be based on: (1) the information contained in the customer's final statement, and (2) certain additional written confirmations received after the final statement but prior to the filing date. However, the bill establishes exceptions to this requirement: (1) when the debtor's records indicate a higher net value, or (2) in specified cases involving the customer's awareness of fraudulent activity by the debtor.

The bill also establishes specified methodologies for allocating a customer's property in a liquidation proceeding.

 Under current law, a "customer" of a debtor is a person that has a claim on account of certain securities received, acquired, or held by the debtor. The bill expands the definition of "customer" to include a person: (1) that had cash or securities that were converted or otherwise misappropriated by the debtor, irrespective of whether the debtor held or otherwise had custody, possession, or control of such cash or securities; or (2) that is deemed a customer of the debtor by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

 The SEC may direct the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) to take necessary or appropriate action for the protection of investors.

If the balance of the SIPC Fund decreases by more than a specified amount during a fiscal year, the SIPC must establish and carry out a fund replenishment plan.

The SEC may transfer amounts from a specified fund established under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 if the SEC determines that payments from the SIPC Fund are required because a debtor committed fraud.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2016-09-09 00:00:00

Risk-Based Credit Examination Act

This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to provide the Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Credit Ratings with discretion concerning the matters to review in its annual examinations of the management and activities of nationally recognized statistical rating organizations.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2016-09-15 00:00:00

This bill prohibits proposed Internal Revenue Service regulations published on August 4, 2016, relating to restrictions on liquidation of an interest with respect to estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes, and any substantially similar regulations, from taking effect.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2016-09-21 00:00:00

Protect Family Farms and Businesses Act 

This bill prohibits proposed Internal Revenue Service regulations published on August 4, 2016, relating to restrictions on liquidation of an interest with respect to estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes from taking effect. The bill prohibits funds from being used to finalize, implement, administer, or enforce the proposed regulations or any substantially similar regulations.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2016-09-22 00:00:00

Corporate Transparency and Accountability Act

This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require each issuer of a security required to file an annual or quarterly report to disclose during the period covered in that report:

 the issuer's total pre-tax profit, the total amount paid by the issuer in state taxes, the total amount paid by the issuer in federal taxes, and the total amount paid by the issuer in foreign taxes. Each such issuer shall also disclose in that report specified corporate financial information, aggregated on a country-by-country basis, for each of its subsidiaries.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2016-12-08 00:00:00

Municipal Securities Disclosure Act of 2016

This bill amends the Securities Act of 1933 to require registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of certain industrial development bonds that finance private projects through municipal securities. (Currently, the Securities Act exempts these private activity municipal bonds from SEC registration.)

The bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require state and local government issuers of municipal securities, or obligated persons or borrowers with respect to these securities, to prepare annual periodic reports and disseminate financial disclosures that the SEC determines appropriate in the public interest and for the protection of investors. (Currently, SEC antifraud rules do not regulate municipal securities issuers directly but the rules prohibit securities dealers from underwriting the buying or selling of municipal securities unless they obtain the state or local government issuer's agreement to provide ongoing disclosures to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. The bill makes state or local government issuers directly responsible for providing the municipal securities disclosures by placing them under the SEC's jurisdiction.)

The SEC may prescribe the accounting methods to be followed in the preparation of the financial statements or require the use of accounting methods established by a standard-setting body.

An issuer or borrower of outstanding municipal securities exceeding $10 million must adopt internal controls that identify the officials responsible for preparing the required disclosures and provide checks and balances for adequate supervision. The SEC may allow these requirements to be satisfied through a statewide system of disclosure controls and disclosure education.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-01-21 00:00:00

Shareholder Protection Act of 2015

 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 to evaluate periodically the effectiveness of SEC oversight of these requirements.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-01-27 00:00:00

Retirement Security Act of 2015

 Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to: (1) prescribe final regulations to permit employers to participate in multiple employer pension benefit plans, (2) promulgate regulations or other guidance to simplify and clarify rules relating to the timing of participant notices required under tax-preferred pension plans and the automatic escalation rules, and (3) modify the 1040EZ tax return form to allow taxpayers to claim the tax credit for retirement savings (saver's credit) on such form.

Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to employer pension benefit plans, to: (1) allow employers to maintain a tax-exempt multiple employer pension benefit plan even if the employers sponsoring the plan share no common interest, (2) modify requirements for secure deferral arrangements with respect to nondiscrimination and employer matching contributions, and (3) allow employers with not more than 100 employees a business-related tax credit to cover increased matching contributions required by this Act.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-02-05 00:00:00

Foreign Earnings Reinvestment Act 

 Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) extend the election allowed to a domestic corporation to deduct current and accumulated dividends received from a controlled foreign corporation to the corporation's last taxable year beginning before the enactment of this Act or the first taxable year which begins during the one-year period beginning on such enactment date, (2) reduce tax rates on foreign earnings of domestic corporations that reinvest such earnings in the United States and that expand their payrolls over 2014 levels, and (3) increase the taxable income of domestic corporations that fail to maintain employment levels in the 23-month period after receiving a reduction in tax rates under this Act.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-02-26 00:00:00

Encouraging Employee Ownership Act

Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to revise regulations to require an issuer to furnish investors with additional specified disclosures regarding compensatory benefit plans if the aggregate sales price or amount of securities sold during any consecutive 12-month period exceeds $10 million (currently $5 million), indexed for inflation every five years.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-03-11 00:00:00

Stop Illegal Insider Trading Act 

This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 governing manipulative and deceptive devices to make it unlawful for any person to: (1) purchase, sell, or cause the purchase or sale of any security on the basis of material information that the person knows or has reason to know is not publicly available; or (2) knowingly or recklessly communicate material information that the person knows or has reason to know is not publicly available to any other person under circumstances in which it is reasonably foreseeable that the communication is likely to result in a violation of this prohibition.

Excludes from the definition of "not publicly available" any information a person has developed independently from publicly available sources.

 The Securities and Exchange Commission is permitted to exempt, by rule, any person, transaction, communication, or any class of persons, transactions, or communications from the prohibitions of this Act, if it determines that the exemption is necessary or appropriate in the public interest and consistent with the protection of investors.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-03-26 00:00:00

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), provided that an appropriate credit support measure or other mechanism must be used if the hedge or mitigation of commercial risk is addressed by entering into a swap with either: (1) 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.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-04-14 00:00:00

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

Real Estate Investment and Jobs Act of 2015 

(Sec. 2) This section increases from 5% to 10% the stock ownership threshold in a real estate investment trust (REIT) for exempting such stock as a U.S. real property interest on disposition.

(Sec. 3) This section provides for an increase from 10% to 15% of the rate of withholding of tax on dispositions of U.S. real property interests.

(Sec. 4) This section requires any corporation that is a U.S. real property holding company during a specified period to disclose such status to the Internal Revenue Service, the corporation's shareholders, and the public. The corporation is subject to penalties for failure to make such a disclosure.

(Sec. 5) This section requires a broker to deduct and withhold a tax equal to 15% of the amount realized on the disposition of stock of a U.S. real property holding company by a foreign person.

(Sec. 6) This provision exempts regulated investment companies (RICs) and REITs from tax rules governing the treatment of stock of a domestic corporation as a U.S. real property holding company.

(Sec. 7) This section provides that neither RICs nor REITs shall not be treated as domestic corporations for purposes of determining whether dividends from a foreign corporation are eligible for the tax deduction for the U.S-sourced portion of such dividends.

(Sec. 8) This section increases from 30% to 35% the rate of the continuous levy on payments made after 180 days after the enactment of this Act to Medicare providers and suppliers for unpaid taxes.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-04-16 00:00:00

Helping Angels Lead Our Startups Act or the HALOS Act

 Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to amend Regulation D (governing the limited offer and sale of securities without registration under the Securities Act of 1933) to make the prohibition against general solicitation or general advertising inapplicable to events with specified kinds of sponsors (including angel investor groups not connected to broker-dealers or investment advisers) where:

 presentations or communications are made by or on behalf of an issuer, the advertising does not refer to any specific offering of securities by the issuer, the sponsor does not engage in certain activities (such as offering investment recommendations or advice to attendees), and no specific information regarding a securities offering is communicated (other than that the issuer is in the process of offering or planning to offer securities, including the type and amount of securities being offered).
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-04-20 00:00:00

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

 Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to exempt from its registration requirements certain merger and acquisition 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; (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; (3) engage on behalf of any party in a transaction involving a public shell company; or (4) are subject to suspension or revocation of registration, or to certain statutory disqualifications, or to certain final orders.

Prohibits this Act from being 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: Taxation
Date: 2015-05-04 00:00:00

Move America Act of 2015

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow the issuance of Move America Bonds as tax-exempt private facility bonds and describes a Move America Bond as a bond issued as part of an issuance that requires 95% or more of its net proceeds to be used for infrastructure projects, including: (1) airports; (2) docks and wharves; (3) mass commuting facilities; (4) railroads; (5) any surface transportation project eligible for federal assistance, a project for an international bridge or tunnel, or a facility for the transfer of freight from truck to rail or rail to truck; (6) flood diversions; or (7) inland waterways.

The bill also allows a tax credit for 10% of the value of a Move America credit certificate that is issued to a taxpayer by a state or project sponsor for infrastructure investment.