zli12321/Bills huggingface dataset:
Small Business Credit Availability Act - Amends the Investment Company Act of 1940 to allow a business development company (BDC) to own or acquire securities or other interests in the business of a registered investment adviser or adviser to an investment company.

Reduces from 200% to 150% the asset coverage requirements applicable to BDCs. Allows a BDC to issue stock.

Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to revise various rules under the Securities Act of 1933 and to revise forms as necessary to allow a BDC to use security offering rules available to other issuers that are required to file security issuance reports under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Date: 2013-04-26
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Spread Pricing Liquidity Act of 2013 - Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 concerning the national market system for securities to authorize the board of directors of an issuer with a public float of $500 million or less to select to have the issuer's securities quoted and traded using an increment (tick) of either $0.05 or $0.10.

Prohibits selection of the $0.05 tick unless the average trading price in the most recent 1-month period for the securities of an issuer is between $1 and $2. Limits the tick selection to $0.05 for the issuer of any such security.

Prescribes trading requirements. Permits a issuer that has made the selection under this Act to choose to opt out at any time after the six-month period beginning on the date the selection was made.

States that, if the public float of an issuer that has made such a tick selection rises above $500 million (based on a rolling average over the course of a 3-month period), or its average daily trading volume rises above $500 million, then after the end of the 3-month period beginning on the date of such occurrence the issuer: (1) shall no longer be considered to have made the tick selection; and (2) shall be ineligible to make such a tick selection for 2 years after such 3-month period.

Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to study the quoting and trading of securities in increments of $0.05 and $0.10, and the extent to which such system increases liquidity by incentivizing capital commitment, research coverage, and brokerage support.

Date: 2013-05-13
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Business Development Company Modernization Act - Amends the Investment Company Act of 1940 to allow business development companies to invest in: (1) a registered investment adviser or investment adviser to an investment company, or (2) an eligible portfolio company (generally, a small- or middle-market financial service company).

Date: 2013-05-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
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.

Date: 2013-06-06
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Fostering Innovation Act of 2013 - Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to redefine "accelerated filer" with respect to issuers of securities required to meet accelerated deadlines for filing their Form 10-Q quarterly reports.

Requires the SEC to include among accelerated filers any issuers of securities that have: (1) annual revenues in excess of $100 million, and (2) an aggregated worldwide market value between $250 million and $700 million of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates.

Date: 2013-07-09
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
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).

Date: 2013-08-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Keep Repos to Maturity on Balance Sheet Act of 2013 - Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 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) concurrently the transferor and the transferee agree 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.

Date: 2013-08-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Nothing Off Balance Sheet Act of 2013 - Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 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.

Date: 2013-08-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
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 (CFTC) and of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including their respective officers and components.

Date: 2013-08-02
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Small Cap Liquidity Reform Act of 2014 - Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to establish a pilot liquidity program for equity securities of emerging growth companies (EGCs) with total annual gross revenues of less than $750 million, under which those securities shall be quoted using either: (1) a minimum increment of $0.05 or $0.10, or (2) the increment at which the securities would be quoted without regard to such minimum increments.

Repeals the requirement for an SEC study examining the transition to trading and quoting securities in one penny increments, known as decimalization.

Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to determine, in the case of an EGC whose securities are quoted at a minimum increment of either $0.05 or $0.10, the increment at which such securities are traded.

Requires EGC securities quoted at a minimum increment of $0.05 or $0.10 to be traded at either such minimum increment or at one permitted by SEC regulations.

Permits an EGC to opt out or change such minimum increment upon notifying the SEC 90 days after enactment of this Act. Limits any EGC to a single change of minimum increment (thus prohibiting any increases in the minimum).

Requires the SEC, upon notification of an EGC election, to inform each trading venue where the EGC securities are quoted or traded.

Requires that securities of issuers that cease to be EGCs be quoted at the increment at which such securities would be quoted without regard to the minimum increments established under this Act.

Prescribes pricing and trading procedures governing securities trading below $1.00.

Directs the SEC to require an EGC under this Act to submit additional reports and disclosures.

Shields an issuer from liability for losses caused solely by the quoting or trading of its securities at a minimum increment of $0.05 or $0.10, another SEC-authorized increment, or by both such quoting and trading.

Directs the SEC to report biannually to Congress on: (1) the quoting and trading of securities in increments permitted by this Act, and (2) the extent to which such quoting and trading increases liquidity and active trading by incentivizing capital commitment, research coverage, and brokerage support.

Authorizes the SEC to: (1) make adjustments to the pilot program to ensure that it can provide statistically meaningful or reliable results, and (2) conduct any other study or pilot program to evaluate quoting or trading in various minimum increments.

Sunsets the pilot program five years after enactment of this Act.

Date: 2013-11-12
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Improving Access to Capital for Emerging Growth Companies Act - Amends the Securities Act of 1933 (Act) to reduce from 21 to 15 the number of days before a "road show" that an emerging growth company (EGC), before its initial public offering (IPO) date, may publicly file a draft registration statement for confidential nonpublic review by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff.

(A financial "road show" is an offer [other than a statutory prospectus or a portion of one] that contains a presentation regarding an offering by one or more members of the issuer's management and includes discussion of one or more of the issuer, such management, and the securities being offered. Typically, a road show is a series of meetings across different cities, often before an IPO, in which top executives from a company have the opportunity to talk with current or potential investors.)

Prescribes a grace period during which an issuer that was an EGC at the time it filed a confidential registration statement for confidential SEC review, but is no longer one, shall continue to be treated as one.

Authorizes an EGC, within one year of its IPO, to submit confidentially to the SEC a draft registration statement for any securities to be issued subsequent to its IPO (follow-on offerings) for confidential nonpublic review by SEC staff before publicly filing a registration statement, if the initial confidential submission, including amendments, is publicly filed with the SEC within two days before it issues those follow-on offerings.

 Amends the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act to direct the SEC to revise its general instructions on Form S-1 to prescribe conditions under which a registration statement that is filed by an issuer (or submitted for confidential review) before its IPO may omit financial disclosure information for historical periods otherwise required.

Date: 2013-11-22
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Risk Management Certainty Act - Amends the Commodity Exchange Act to revise the de minimis exemption from designation as a swap dealer. Specifies the de minimus quantity of swap dealing as at least $8 billion.

(The Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] is required to exempt from designation as a swap dealer any entity that engages in de minimis quantity of swap dealing in connection with transactions with or on behalf of its customers.)

Directs the CFTC to include, among the factors used in determining swap dealer exemptions, any monetary or other levels it has established. Prescribes affirmative CFTC action, either by rule or by regulation, as a prerequisite to changing or amending such levels.

Date: 2014-01-07
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Small Company Disclosure Simplification Act - Exempts emerging growth companies and issuers with total annual gross revenues of less than $250 million from the requirements to use Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) for financial statements and other mandatory periodic reporting filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Allows such companies, however, to elect to use XBRL for such reporting.

Directs the SEC to: (1) analyze the costs and benefits to such issuers of the requirements to use XBRL for financial statements and other mandatory periodic reporting; and (2) report to certain congressional committees on the results of such analysis as well as on progress in implementing XBRL reporting within the SEC, and use of XBRL data by the SEC and by investors.

Date: 2014-03-06
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Restoring Proven Financing for American Employers Act - Amends the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 with respect to certain prohibitions on proprietary trading by banking entities and certain relationships with hedge funds and private equity funds (Volcker Rule).

Prescribes rules of construction governing a collateralized loan obligation to prohibit the Volcker Rule from being construed to require divestiture, before July 21, 2017, of any debt securities of collateralized loan obligations issued before January 31, 2014.

Declares that a banking entity shall not be considered to have an ownership interest in a collateralized loan obligation because it either acquires, has acquired, or retains a debt security in such obligation if the debt security has no indicia of ownership other than the right of the banking entity to participate in the removal for cause, or in the selection of a replacement after removal for cause or resignation, of an investment manager or investment adviser of the collateralized loan obligation.

Defines "collateralized loan obligation" as any issuing entity of an asset-backed security comprised primarily of commercial loans.

Deems an investment manager or adviser to be removed "for cause" if the removal is a result of:

 a breach of a material term of the applicable management or advisory agreement or the agreement governing the collateralized loan obligation; the investment manager's or investment adviser's inability to continue to perform its obligations under any such agreement; any other action or inaction by the investment manager or investment adviser that has or could reasonably be expected to have a materially adverse effect on the collateralized loan obligation, if the investment manager or investment adviser fails to cure or take reasonable steps to cure such effect within a reasonable time; or an event or circumstance which threatens, or could reasonably be expected to threaten, the interests of holders of the debt securities.

Date: 2014-03-06
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

SBIC Advisers Relief Act of 2014 - 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.

Provides the same exemption with respect to any state or local law requiring the registration, licensing, or qualifications of investment advisers.

Date: 2014-03-11
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Commodity Delivery Relief Act - Amends the Commodity Exchange Act to revise the exclusion from the definition of "swap" of any sale of a nonfinancial commodity or security for deferred shipment or delivery, so long as the transaction is intended to be physically settled.

Excludes from the meaning of "swap" also: (1) any purchase of a nonfinancial commodity or security for deferred shipment or delivery, so long as the transaction is intended to be physically settled; and (2) any stand-alone or embedded option for which exercise results in a physical delivery obligation.

Date: 2014-03-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Business Risk Planning Act - Amends the Commodity Exchange Act to direct the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to: (1) prescribe a rule for public reporting of swap transactions (including price and volume data) in illiquid markets that are not cleared and entered into by a non-financial entity that is hedging or mitigating commercial risk, and (2) ensure that such swap transaction information is publicly available no sooner than 30 days after it has been executed or at a later date the CFTC determines appropriate to protect the identity of participants and positions in illiquid markets and to prevent the elimination or reduction of market liquidity.

Defines an "illiquid market" as one in which there is relatively little volume and infrequent trading in swaps.

Date: 2014-03-27
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Energize Emerging Opportunities Act - Directs the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to amend regulations regarding criteria qualifying certain registered commodity pool operators for exemption from requirements for specified risk disclosures, performance disclosures, periodic reporting, annual reporting, and recordkeeping.

Alters one criterion for qualification for such exemptions currently granted to: (1) registered commodity pool operators who sell participations in a pool solely to qualified eligible persons in an offering which qualifies for exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act, and (2) certain banks registered as commodity pool operators in connection with a pool that is a collective trust fund whose securities are exempt from registration under the Securities Act.

Repeals the current additional criterion for such banks that the securities must be offered or sold, without marketing to the public, solely to qualified eligible persons. Replaces such criterion with one stating simply that the securities must be sold solely to qualified eligible persons. (Thus, eliminates the requirement that such securities be offered or sold without marketing to the public, and so allows such marketing.)

Repeals the current prerequisite for exemption of interests in a commodity pool from registration under the Securities Act of 1933 that such interests be offered and sold without marketing to the public in the United States. Requires such interests, instead, simply to be offered and sold pursuant to specified requirements for exempted transactions. (Thus, also eliminates the requirement that such interests be offered and sold without marketing to the public in the United States, and so allows such marketing.)

Date: 2014-04-03
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Restricted Securities Relief Act of 2014 - Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to revise specified regulations to: (1) reduce from six to three months the holding period for restricted securities issued by an issuer that is, and has been for at least 90 days immediately before the sale, subject to certain reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; and (2) permit a securities issuer with no or nominal operations and no or nominal non-cash assets that has ceased to be such an issuer to sell its securities two years after filing with the SEC a Form 8-K stating that it is no longer an issuer with no or nominal operations and no or nominal non-cash assets.

Amends the Securities Act of 1933 to exempt from any state or local registration or qualification requirements any security offered or sold in compliance with specified conditions for private resales of securities to institutions.

Date: 2014-05-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Startup Capital Modernization Act of 2014 - Amends the Securities Act of 1933 (Act) to increase from $5 million to $10 million the maximum aggregate amount of securities exempt from its purview due to either the small amount involved, or the limited character of the public offering.

Preempts state requirements governing securities registration, documentation, and offerings in connection with small issues related to small company capital formation.

Declares that this Act shall have no impact on state enforcement authority over the unlawful conduct of issuers, intermediaries, or custodians who are exempt from federal registration requirements under the Act.

Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to exempt certain small issues from its securities registration requirements if the issuer: (1) has filed audited financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and (2) is in compliance with all periodic disclosures required by the SEC.

 Exempts from prohibitions relating to interstate commerce and the mails any transaction where: (1) each purchaser is an accredited investor; and (2) if the securities are offered by means of any general solicitation or general advertising, the seller verifies that the purchaser is an accredited investor.

Denies such an exemption to transactions where the seller is: (1) either an issuer, its subsidiaries or parent; (2) a dealer; or (3) an underwriter acting on behalf of the issuer, its subsidiaries, or parent, which receives compensation from the issuer with respect to such sale.

Date: 2014-05-06
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Small Business Freedom to Grow Act of 2014 - Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to revise Form S-1 so that a smaller reporting company may incorporate by reference in a registration statement filed on that form any documents it files with the SEC after the registration statement's effective date.

Directs the SEC to revise Form S-3 so as to permit securities to be registered pursuant to General Instruction I.B.1. of the form if either: (1) the aggregate market value of voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant is $75 million or more, or (2) the registrant has at least one class of common equity securities listed and registered on a national securities exchange.

Requires the SEC to remove a certain listing and registration requirement from General Instruction I.B.6. of Form S-3.

Date: 2014-05-06
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Disclosure Modernization and Simplification Act of 2014 - Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to issue regulations permitting issuers to submit a summary page on annual and transition report form 10-K if each item on that page cross-references electronically or otherwise the material contained in form 10-K to which the item relates.

Requires the SEC to revise regulation S-K (Standard Instructions for Filing Forms under the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975) in order to:

 reduce the burden on smaller issuers, including emerging growth companies, accelerated filers, and smaller reporting companies (while still providing all material information to investors); eliminate duplicative, overlapping, outdated, or unnecessary provisions; and for which o further study under this Act is necessary to determine the efficacy of such revisions. Directs the SEC to study ways to: (1) modernize and simplify requirements in regulation S-K, and (2) evaluate information delivery and presentation methods as well as explore methods to discourage repetition and disclosure of immaterial information.

Requires the SEC to issue a proposed rule to implement any recommendations it makes to Congress based on the study.

Date: 2014-05-06
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Private Placement Improvement Act of 2014 - Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to revise the filing requirements of Regulation D to require an issuer that offers or sells securities in reliance upon a certain exemption from registration (for limited offers and sales without regard to the dollar amount of the offering [Rule 506]) to file, no earlier than the date of first sale of such securities, a single notice of sales containing the information required by Form D for each new offering of securities.

Prohibits the SEC from: (1) requiring the issuer to file any notice of sales containing the information required by Form D except for this single notice; (2) conditioning the availability of the Rule 506 exemption upon the filing of a Form D or similar report; or (3) requiring issuers to submit written general solicitation materials in connection with a limited offering subject to Rule 506, except when it requests such materials pursuant to specified authority.

Directs the SEC to revise a specified rule, regarding a Rule 506 offering of a private fund, to characterize as an accredited investor a "knowledgeable employee" of that private fund or the fund's investment adviser.

Prohibits the SEC from extending to private funds the requirements governing investment company sales literature.

Date: 2014-05-06
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 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 $20 million (currently $5 million).

Directs the SEC to index that aggregate sales price or amount for inflation every 5 years.

Date: 2014-05-06
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Small-Cap Access to Capital Act - Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to revise its definition of a well-known seasoned issuer to: (1) reduce from $700 million to $250 million the dollar amount of the issuer's worldwide market value of outstanding voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates, and (2) prohibit an emerging growth company from qualifying as a well-known seasoned issuer.

Date: 2014-05-21
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to private activity bond financing for first-time farmers, to: (1) increase from $450,000 to $509,600 (adjusted annually for inflation) the amount of bond proceeds that may be used by a first-time farmer to acquire land for farming purposes, (2) repeal the limitation on the use of bond proceeds for used farm equipment, and (3) modify the definition of "substantial farmland" to determine farm size by reference to the average (instead of median) size of a farm in the county in which the farm is located.

Date: 2014-05-29
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Taxation
Helping Angels Lead Our Startups Act or the HALOS Act - Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 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).

Date: 2014-06-19
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Energy Markets Emergency Act - 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 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.

Date: 2014-06-26
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Corporate Transparency and Accountability Act - Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require each issuer of a security required to file an annual or quarterly report to disclose in that report: (1) the issuer's total pre-tax profit during the period covered, and (2) the total amount paid by the issuer in state and federal taxes during that period.

Date: 2014-09-10
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

 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.

Date: 2014-09-15
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Wall Street Accountability Through Sustainable Funding Act - Amends the Commodity Exchange Act to require the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to impose fees to recover the cost of the appropriation to the CFTC for the fiscal year.

Requires the fees to be imposed on each agreement, contract, or transaction that is a contract of sale of a commodity for future delivery, an option, or a swap.

Permits the CFTC to exempt contracts, agreements, or transactions from the fee if the exemption is consistent with: (1) the public interest; (2) the equal treatment of contract markets, derivatives clearing organizations, and market participants; and (3) the operation of a nationwide market system.

Establishes the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Reserve Fund in the Treasury and requires the CFTC to impose and collect an additional fee to be deposited into the Fund. Permits the CFTC to obligate amounts in the Fund for long-term investments in information technology and unexpected expenses. Limits the balance in the Fund to $50 million.

Date: 2014-09-16
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Taxpayer Protections Against Abusive Seizures Act - Requires notice of a right to request a court hearing to each person whose property is seized or restrained because of an alleged violation of the prohibition against structuring transactions to evade reporting requirements.

Requires the seized or restrained property to be returned, if the person requests a court hearing within 14 days after receiving such notice, unless within 14 days of that request the court holds an adversarial hearing and finds probable cause to believe that such a violation exists.

Date: 2014-12-10
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Securities Litigation Attorney Accountability and Transparency Act - Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Securities Act of 1933 to require plaintiff and plaintiff's attorney in any private securities class action to disclose in sworn certifications filed with the complaint: (1) any direct or indirect payment, or promise of such, by the attorney (or an affiliated person) to the plaintiff (or any affiliated person), beyond the pro rata share of any recovery received by the plaintiff; (2) the nature and terms of any legal representation provided by such attorney (or an affiliated person) to such plaintiff (or an affiliated person), other than the representation of the plaintiff in the private action; and (3) any contribution made during the five-year period preceding the filing date of the complaint by such attorney (or an affiliated person) or any political action committee controlled by such attorney, to any elected official with real or apparent authority to retain counsel for such plaintiff or to select or appoint, influence the selection or appointment of, or oversee any individual or group of individuals with that authority.

Requires the court, in exercising its discretion over the approval of lead counsel, to employ a competitive bidding process as one of the criteria in the selection and retention of counsel for the most adequate plaintiff in a class action, unless the court determines on the record that such a process is not feasible.

Directs the Comptroller General to: (1) study fee awards to lead counsel in securities class actions during the seven-year period preceding the enactment of this Act; and (2) determine the effective average hourly rate for lead counsel in such actions, including lead counsel perquisites such as travel and accommodation.

Date: 2013-03-22
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

Amends the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 (STOCK Act) with respect to mandatory public, on-line reporting of financial disclosure statements by congressional staff and executive branch officers and employees.

Applies mandatory public, on-line reporting of financial disclosure statements only to Members of Congress, congressional candidates, the President, the Vice President, and executive branch officers at levels I and II of the Executive Schedule who require nomination by the President and confirmation by the Senate.

Extends until January 1, 2014, the deadline for:

 the Secretary, the Sergeant at Arms, and the Clerk to develop systems to enable the electronic filing of financial disclosure reports as well as their on-line public availability; the Director of the Office of Government Ethics to develop such systems for financial disclosure forms filed by covered executive branch officials. Repeals: (1) the prohibition against requiring a login to search or sort the data contained in the publicly available financial disclosure systems, and (2) the requirement that a login protocol with the name of the user be utilized by a person downloading data contained in the reports.

Date: 2013-04-11
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Government operations and politics
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.

Date: 2013-04-16
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Taxation
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.

Date: 2013-04-25
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
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.

Date: 2013-05-07
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
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.

Date: 2013-06-18
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Taxation
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.

Date: 2014-01-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
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.

Date: 2014-03-12
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
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.

Date: 2014-04-03
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Taxation
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.

Date: 2014-06-26
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
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.

Date: 2014-07-15
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
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.

Date: 2014-09-18
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
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.

Date: 2014-12-04
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector