lcalvobartolome/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-05-06 00:00:00

Promotion and Expansion of Private Employee Ownership Act of 2015

 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 employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).

Directs the Department 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: Taxation
Date: 2015-05-19 00:00:00

Inclusive Prosperity Act of 2015

 Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) impose an excise tax on the transfer of ownership in certain securities (covered transaction), including any share of stock in a corporation, any partnership or beneficial interest in a partnership or trust, any note, bond, debenture, or other evidence of indebtedness (excluding tax-exempt municipal bonds), or derivative financial instruments; (2) impose a penalty on taxpayers who fail to include a covered transaction on their tax return or information statement; and (3) allow an individual taxpayer whose modified adjusted gross income does not exceed $50,000 ($75,000 for married taxpayers filing joint returns) a tax credit for the amount of tax paid on covered transactions.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-06-04 00:00:00

Bolstering Our Nation's Deficient Structures Act of 2015 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 in 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: 2015-06-11 00:00:00

This bill amends the Commodity Exchange Act to declare that any rules or regulations requiring a futures commission merchant (FCM) to maintain a residual interest in accounts held for the benefit of customers in amounts at least sufficient to exceed the sum of all the customers' uncollected margin deficits shall require an FCM to meet its residual interest requirement as of the end of each business day calculated as of the close of business on the previous business day.

The bill repeals the prerequisite to sharing by Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) with a specified entity of information on swaps cleared by derivatives clearing organizations that the entity agree to indemnify the CFTC for any expenses arising from litigation relating to that information.

The bill also: repeals a similar prerequisite for information-sharing by a swap data repository, and makes a similar and conforming amendment to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 with respect to a securities-based swap data repository. States that this Act takes effect as if enacted as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on July 21, 2010.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-06-25 00:00:00

Carried Interest Fairness Act of 2015 

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) set forth a special rule for the inclusion in gross income of partnership interests transferred in connection with the performance of services, (2) treat as ordinary income the net capital gain with respect to an investment services partnership interest except to the extent such gain is attributable to a partner's qualified capital interest, (3) exempt income from investment services partnership interests from treatment as qualifying income of a publicly traded partnership, (4) exempt certain family partnerships from the application of this Act; (5) increase the penalty for underpayments of tax resulting from failure to treat income from an investment services partnership interest as ordinary income, and (6) include income and loss from an investment services partnership interest for purposes of determining net earnings from self-employment and applicable self-employment taxes.

Defines "investment services partnership interest" as any interest in a partnership held by a person who provides services to a partnership by: (1) advising the partnership about investing in, purchasing, or selling specified assets; (2) managing, acquiring, or disposing of specified assets; or (3) arranging financing with respect to acquiring specified assets.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-07-09 00:00:00

Stronger Enforcement of Civil Penalties Act of 2015

 Amends the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Investment Company Act of 1940, and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 to increase the money penalties in administrative and civil actions involving securities laws violations.

Prescribes a fourth tier penalty of triple monetary penalties for noncompliance with certain enforcement actions if the violator, within the five-year period preceding the prohibited act, was criminally convicted for securities fraud or became subject to a judgment or order imposing monetary, equitable, or administrative relief in any Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) action alleging fraud by such violator.

Applies the treatment as a separate offense each day that a violation of an SEC cease-and-desist order is committed through continuing noncompliance to violation of any action to enforce a federal court injunction or certain SEC orders that bar, suspend, place limitations on the activities or functions of, or prohibit the activities of, a person.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-07-16 00:00:00

Consumer Financial Choice and Capital Markets Protection Act of 2015

This bill amends the Investment Company Act of 1940 to authorize any open-end investment company to elect, in its registration statement, to be a money market fund and to compute the current price per share, for purposes of distribution or redemption and repurchase, of any redeemable security issued by the company using the amortized cost method of valuation or the penny-rounding method of pricing, regardless of whether its shareholders are limited to natural persons, if:

 the company's objective is the generation of income and preservation of capital through investment in short-term, high-quality debt securities; the company elects to maintain a stable net asset value per share or stable price per share, by virtue of such methods, and the board of directors of the company has determined in good faith that it is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders to do so and that the money market fund will continue to use such method(s) only as long as the board believes that the resulting share price fairly reflects the market-based net asset value per share of the company; and the company agrees to comply with such quality, maturity, diversification, and liquidity requirements as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) prescribes as necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors, if consistent with this Act. The bill prohibits covered federal assistance from being provided directly to any money market fund. The bill defines: (1) "covered federal assistance " as federal assistance used for the purpose of making any loan to, or purchasing any stock, equity interest, or debt obligation of, any money market fund, guaranteeing any loan or debt issuance of any money market fund, or entering into any assistance arrangement, loss sharing, or profit sharing with any money market fund; and (2) "federal assistance" as insurance or guarantees by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, transactions involving the Secretary of the Treasury, or the use of any advances from any Federal Reserve credit facility or discount window that is not part of a program or facility with broad-based eligibility established in unusual or exigent circumstances.

No principal underwriter of a redeemable security issued by a money market fund nor any dealer shall offer or sell any such security to any person unless the prospectus of the money market fund and any advertising or sales literature for such fund prominently discloses such prohibition against direct covered federal assistance.

 A company that elects to be a money market fund shall remain subject to the provisions of this Act and SEC rules and regulations that would otherwise apply to a registered open-end company, if consistent with this Act.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-07-30 00:00:00

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to make permanent a recognition period of 5 years (currently, 10 years) of the built-in gains of an S corporation beginning on the date that such corporation qualifies as an S corporation.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-08-05 00:00:00

State Licensing Efficiency Act of 2015

This bill amends the S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 to direct the Attorney General to provide appropriate state officials responsible for regulating financial service providers (in addition to state officials responsible for regulating state-licensed loan originators) with access to criminal history information to the extent that criminal history background checks are required under state law for the licensing of such parties.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2015-08-05 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 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: 2016-02-04 00:00:00

Retail Investor Protection Act

 This bill prohibits the Secretary of Labor from prescribing any regulation under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) defining the circumstances under which an individual shall be considered a fiduciary until 60 days after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issues a final rule governing standards of conduct for brokers and dealers under specified law.

The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is amended to prohibit the SEC from promulgating a rule establishing an investment adviser standard of conduct as the standard of conduct of brokers and dealers before it reports to certain congressional committees whether:

 retail investors and other customers are being harmed by brokers or dealers operating under different standards of conduct than those applicable to investment advisers under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940; alternative remedies will reduce any confusion or harm to retail investors due to brokers or dealers operating under such different standards of conduct; adoption of a uniform fiduciary standard of conduct for brokers, dealers, and investment advisers would adversely impact their commissions and the availability of proprietary products offered by brokers and dealers, as well as the ability of brokers and dealers to engage in principal transactions with customers; and adoption of a uniform fiduciary standard of conduct for brokers or dealers and investment advisers would adversely impact retail investor access to personalized, cost-effective investment advice and recommendations. The SEC shall: (1) publish in the Federal Register formal findings that such rule would reduce retail customer confusion or harm due to different standards of conduct applicable to brokers, dealers, and investment advisers; and (2) consider, when proposing rules, the differences in the registration, supervision, and examination requirements applicable to brokers, dealers, and investment advisers.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2016-02-25 00:00:00

Whistleblower Augmented Reward and Nonretaliation Act of 2016 or the WARN Act of 2016 

This bill amends the Financial Institutions Anti-Fraud Enforcement Act of 1990 governing the rights of a private person (declarant) who files a declaration of a violation giving rise to a federal action for civil penalties with respect to fraud crimes involving federally insured financial institutions.

The bill revises the minimum and maximum percentage of a declarant's entitlement to share in the recovery by the United States from a judgment, order, or settlement that was based in whole or in part on the information contained in a valid declaration, and allows a 30-day window in which to appeal any award determination.

The bill prescribes specified relief in a civil action intended to protect declarants from employer reprisals including reinstatement with the same seniority status.

The Department of Justice shall require employers to provide education and training to employees regarding declarant rights and remedies.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Act is amended to extend similar protections to employees of banking agencies, together with the same minimum and maximum rewards for information leading to recoveries or civil penalties.

Both the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Commodity Exchange Act are amended to: (1) remove the definition of whistleblower, and (2) prohibit the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commissions) from denying eligibility for an award if the information basic to the award is submitted within 90 days after obtaining knowledge of the disclosed misconduct.

The Commissions shall presume that reports are timely and shall not reduce an award due to delay, unless disclosure was deliberately postponed either because of culpability, interference with internal investigative processes, or attempts at self-enrichment.

The prohibition against employer retaliation shall cover acts by the whistleblower in: (1) objecting to, or refusing to participate in, any activity, policy, practice which the whistleblower reasonably believed to be in violation of Commission-enforceable law, rule, order, standard, or prohibition; or (2) providing information relating to any violation within Commission jurisdiction.

Relief for an individual prevailing in an enforcement action shall include compensatory damages and up to $250,000 in punitive damages.

The bill prohibits employers from: (1) taking specified actions to impede an individual who undertakes a protected activity, or (2) engaging in any other discrimination that would chill the exercise of a protected activity.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2016-03-17 00:00:00

Brokaw Act

This bill directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to amend specified regulations to reflect a revision the bill makes to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 reducing from 10 to 2 business days the deadline for disclosing to the SEC any acquisition of a direct or indirect short interest in an equity security of a certain kind of voting class that results in a direct or indirect short interest representing more than 5% of that class.

The mandatory disclosures of short interests shall apply to:

 any class of equity security which must be registered, certain equity securities of an insurance company, and any equity security issued by a closed-end investment company registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The bill deems a person as having a "short interest in a security" if the person has the opportunity, either directly or indirectly, to profit from, or share in any profit derived from any decrease in the value of the security (including a derivative instrument, or a performance-related fee).

The bill deems a person to have a short interest in a security if the person creates or uses certain instruments, including a trust, proxy, power of attorney, pooling arrangement, or any other contract, arrangement, or device, to divest the person of a short interest in a security or to prevent the vesting of a short interest as part of a plan to evade the reporting requirements of the Act.

The bill declares that, with specified exceptions, in calculating the number of shares in which a person has a short interest, regardless of the form of the short interest, all securities of the same class shall be aggregated.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2016-06-23 00:00:00

Fair Access to Investment Research Act of 2016

This bill directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to revise a specified regulation to create a safe harbor for certain publications or distributions of research reports by brokers or dealers distributing securities.

The revised regulation shall declare that a published or distributed investment fund research report shall not be deemed to constitute an offer for sale or an offer to sell a security that is the subject of the offering pursuant to an effective registration statement, even if the broker or dealer is participating or will participate in the registered offering of the covered investment fund's securities.

The covered investment fund research report shall indeed be deemed to satisfy the regulation's requirements as well as those of any self-regulatory organization.

The SEC shall not impose specified conditions and requirements when implementing the safe harbor.

Until the SEC has adopted such safe harbor revisions, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has revised a related rule, a covered investment fund shall be deemed to be a security listed on a national securities exchange that is not subject to a certain filing requirement of the Investment Company Act of 1940.
Topic: Domestic Commerce — Securities & Commodities
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2016-06-29 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: Agriculture and food
Date: 2016-07-13 00:00:00

Commodity Checkoff Program Improvement Act of 2016 

This bill establishes restrictions and requirements for checkoff programs, which are programs overseen by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to promote and provide research and information for a particular agricultural commodity without reference to specific producers or brands.

The bill prohibits boards established to carry out a checkoff program or a USDA order issued under a checkoff program from entering into a contract or agreement to carry out program activities with a party that engages in activities to influence any government policy or action that relates to agriculture.

The bill also prohibits a board or its employees or agents acting in their official capacity from engaging in: (1) any act that involves a conflict of interest; and (2) any anticompetitive activity, unfair or deceptive act or practice, or any act that may be disparaging to another agricultural commodity or product.

The board must meet specified requirements regarding the publication of budgets and disbursements of funds.

The USDA Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office must conduct specified audits regarding checkoff programs.