zli12321/Bills huggingface dataset:
Ending Insider Trading in Commodities Act - Amends the Commodity Exchange Act to make it unlawful for any large financial institution, either directly or indirectly, to purchase or sell any swap, any commodity in interstate commerce, or any contract for future delivery of any commodity while in possession of material, nonpublic information related to the storage, shipment, or use of the commodity arising from the institution's ownership or interest in a business or facility used to store, ship, or use the commodity.

Date: 2014-12-12
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

SBIC Advisers Relief Act of 2015

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

(Sec. 4) Provides the same exemption with respect to any state or local law requiring the registration, licensing, or qualifications of investment advisers.

Date: 2015-01-21
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

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

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

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

Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit any other authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission to exempt any person, or any class of persons, from any provision of this Act, including any related rule or regulation.

Date: 2015-02-03
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Security in Bonding Act of 2015

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

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

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

Requires the Comptroller General (GAO) to study:

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

Date: 2015-02-10
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Subsidy Reserve Act of 2015

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

Instructs the Board to:

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

Permits amounts in the Subsidy Reserve to be taken into account when determining the companies' capital for purposes of meeting any regulatory capital requirements.

Date: 2015-02-11
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Ban Insider Trading Act of 2015

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

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

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

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

Date: 2015-02-26
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: 2015-02-27
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Keep Repos to Maturity on Balance Sheet Act of 2015

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

 Defines "repurchase-to-maturity transaction" as one in which: (1) a financial asset is transferred in exchange for cash, other financial assets, or letters of credit; and (2) the transferor and the transferee agree, concurrently that, at the asset's maturity, the transferee may either return the transferred asset (or a substantially similar asset) to the transferor, or redeem the transferred asset from the issuer of the transferred asset.

Date: 2015-02-27
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Nothing Off Balance Sheet Act of 2015

 Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission, in establishing accounting principles or standards under the securities laws, to require any person subject to those principles or standards to show all transactions on that person's balance sheet.

Date: 2015-02-27
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 and of the Securities and Exchange Commission, including their respective officers and components.

Date: 2015-02-27
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Ban Insider Trading Act of 2015

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

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

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

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

Date: 2015-02-27
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Maker-Taker Conflict of Interest Reform Act of 2015 

This bill directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to initiate a six-month pilot program that examines maker-taker pricing (any pricing model by a trading venue that provides rebates, or comparable inducements, or fees to market participants to either provide liquidity to, or take liquidity from, that trading venue).

In conducting this program, the SEC is required to:

 identify, out of the 100 issuers with the most frequently-traded securities, a random sample of 50 issuers (the "sample group"); prohibit the payment of rebates (or comparable inducements) on any trade of securities of the issuers in the sample group; and compare the effects of such prohibition on the issuers in the sample group compared to the other 50 issuers in the "control group."

Date: 2015-03-03
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
(This measure has not been amended since it was reported to the House on October 26, 2015. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

(Sec. 1) This bill amends the Commodity Exchange Act and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 regarding clearing requirements for certain affiliate swap transactions to revise the conditions under which an affiliate of a person that qualifies for an exception from clearing requirements may itself qualify for such exceptions.

The affiliate must be:

 directly and wholly-owned by another affiliate qualified for the exception or an entity that is not a financial entity; not indirectly majority-owned by a financial entity; not ultimately owned by a parent company that is a financial entity; and an affiliate that does not provide any services, financial or otherwise, to any affiliate that is a nonbank financial company supervised by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The bill disqualifies for the exceptions, however, any affiliate that is:

 a swap dealer, a security-based swap dealer, a major swap participant, a major security-based swap participant, or a commodity pool (all disqualified under current law); a bank holding company (not, as under current law, only a bank holding company with over $50 billion in consolidated assets); a specified kind of private fund; an employee benefit plan or government plan under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA); an insured depository institution; a farm credit system institution; a credit union; a nonbank financial company supervised by the Federal Reserve Board; or an entity engaged in the business of insurance and subject to state or foreign government capital requirements. Unless the Commodity Futures Trading Commission or the Securities and Exchange Commission determines it is in the public interest, however, the exception from clearing requirements shall not apply to an affiliate that is itself affiliated with: (1) a major security-based swap participant; (2) a security-based swap dealer; (3) a major swap participant; or (4) a swap dealer.

An affiliate that does qualify for the exception from clearing requirements may not enter into any swap other than to hedge or mitigate commercial risk.

The bill also prohibits the affiliate, and any person affiliated with the affiliate that is not a financial entity, from:

 entering into a swap with or on behalf of any affiliate that is a financial entity; or otherwise assuming, netting, combining, or consolidating the risk of swaps entered into by any such financial entity, except an affiliate that qualifies for the exception from clearing requirements. Any swap entered into by an affiliate that qualifies for the exception from clearing requirements shall be subject to the affiliate's centralized risk management program, provided it is designed both to: (1) monitor and manage swap associated risks, and (2) identify each affiliate upon whose behalf a swap was entered into.

Date: 2015-03-04
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
SEC Revolving Door Restriction Act of 2015

This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to subject to federal criminal penalties for bribery, graft, and conflicts of interest an ex-employee of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) who, within one year after ending employment with the SEC, works for any company or individual against whom the SEC brought an enforcement action (or a related waiver) within the previous 18 months and the ex-employee participated in that action.

Any employee who seeks to work for such a company or individual must first receive an ethics opinion from the SEC on whether permission to do so should be granted.

Non-professional SEC staff are exempt from this employment prohibition.

Date: 2015-03-19
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
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.

Date: 2015-03-19
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Taxation
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Disclosure Modernization and Simplification Act of 2015

 (Sec. 2) 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.

(Sec. 3) 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); and eliminate duplicative, overlapping, outdated, or unnecessary provisions. (Sec. 4) 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 upon the study.

Date: 2015-03-23
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Insider Trading Prohibition Act

This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to prohibit any person from trading securities or effectuating such trades while in possession of related material, nonpublic information, or while either knowing or recklessly disregarding that the information has been obtained wrongfully, or that the transactions would constitute a wrongful use of such information.

It shall also be unlawful for any person whose own securities transactions violate this Act to communicate wrongfully to another person material, nonpublic information relating to either those transactions or the market for them if the other person:

 purchases, sells, or causes the purchase or sale of, any security or security-based swap or enters into or causes the entry into any security-based swap agreement, to which such communication relates; or communicates the information to another person who makes or causes such a transaction while in possession of such information. The other person's ensuing purchase, sale, or entry while in possession of such information must also be reasonably foreseeable.

A standard and a knowledge requirement are prescribed for acts constituting unlawful trading in securities.

A person who has neither participated in, profited from, nor induced violations of this Act is shielded from liability even though that person controls or employs the violator.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is authorized to exempt from this Act persons, securities, or transactions, subject to any necessary or appropriate terms and conditions, if it determines that the exemption is not inconsistent with the purposes of this Act.

Date: 2015-03-25
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: 2015-03-26
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Small Company Simple Registration Act of 2015 

(Sec. 2) 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.

Date: 2015-03-26
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Reforming Access for Investments in Startup Enterprises Act of 2015 or the RAISE Act of 2015

 (Sec. 2) The Securities Act of 1933 is amended to exempt from security registration requirements, and related prohibitions against using interstate commerce and the mails for the sale or delivery of securities after sale, any transaction where:

 each purchaser is an accredited investor; neither the seller, nor any person acting on the seller's behalf, offers or sells securities by general solicitation or advertising; the seller and prospective purchaser obtain from an issuer meeting certain criteria reasonably current specified information; the transaction is not for the sale of a security whose seller is neither an issuer nor a subsidiary of the issuer; neither the seller, nor any person receiving remuneration for participating in the offer or sale of the securities, is subject to certain legal disqualification (bad actor); the issuer is engaged in business, is not in the organizational stage or in bankruptcy or receivership, and is not a blank check, blind pool, or shell company with no specific business plan or purpose or has indicated that the issuer's primary business plan is to engage in a merger or combination of the business with, or an acquisition of, an unidentified person; the transaction does not involve a security that constitutes the whole or part of an unsold allotment to, or a subscription or participation by, a broker or dealer as an underwriter of the security or a redistribution; and the transaction does involve a security of a class authorized and outstanding for at least 90 days before the transaction. Securities acquired in such exempt transactions shall be deemed to: (1) have been acquired in a transaction not involving any public offering, (2) not be a distribution involving an underwriter, and (2) be restricted securities not subject to certain transaction requirements.

All transactions under this Act shall be exempt from state regulation of securities offerings.

Date: 2015-04-16
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Restoring Proven Financing for American Employers Act

This bill amends the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 governing certain prohibitions on proprietary trading by banking entities and certain relationships with hedge funds and private equity funds (Volcker Rule).

It delays until July 21, 2019, the requirement that a banking entity or nonbank financial company supervised by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System bring into compliance with the Volcker Rule its activities related to or investments in any debt securities of collateralized loan obligations issued before January 31, 2014.

Date: 2015-04-16
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Swap Data Repository and Clearinghouse Indemnification Correction Act of 2015

 Amends the Commodity Exchange Act, with respect to derivatives clearing organizations and swap data repositories, to repeal the prerequisite that, before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) may share information with specified regulatory agencies, such agencies must agree to indemnify the CFTC for expenses arising from litigation relating to information so provided.

Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to repeal similarly the prerequisite that, before a security-based swap data repository may share information with specified regulatory entities, such entities must agree to indemnify both such repository and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for expenses arising from litigation relating to information so provided.

Amends both the CEA and the SEA to require a swap or security-based swap data repository, on a confidential basis and after notification to the CFTC or the SEC, as appropriate, to make only swap or security-based swap data (currently, all data) it has obtained available to specified regulatory authorities, including other foreign authorities in addition to foreign financial supervisors, foreign central banks, and foreign ministries.

Makes these amendments effective as if enacted as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on July 21, 2010.

Date: 2015-04-16
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Energize Emerging Opportunities Act

 Directs the Commodity Futures Trading Commission 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: 2015-04-22
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Securities and Exchange Commission Overpayment Credit Act 

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to offset future fees and assessments otherwise due from a national securities exchange or national securities association if it is informed within 10 years that the entity has overpaid past fees and assessments.

This requirement applies to any fees and assessments paid before, on, or after the enactment of this Act.

Date: 2015-04-22
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Public Power Risk Management Act of 2015

 Amends the Commodity Exchange Act to direct the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), when it determines whether to provide an exemption to designation as a swap dealer, to treat a utility operations-related swap entered into with a utility special entity as if such swap were entered into with an entity that is not a special entity. (Thus exempts an entity entering into a utility operations-related swap with a utility special entity from mandatory registration as a swap dealer.)

Requires transactions in utility operations-related swaps to be reported according to requirements for the reporting of uncleared swaps.

Defines "utility special entity" as a special entity, or any instrumentality, department, or corporation of or established by a state or local government, that: (1) owns or operates, or anticipates owning or operating, an electric or natural gas facility or an electric or natural gas operation; (2) supplies or anticipates supplying natural gas or electric energy to another utility special entity; (3) has or anticipates having public service obligations under federal, state, or local law or regulation to deliver electric energy or natural gas service to customers; or (4) is a federal power marketing agency.

Redefines swap to include a utility operations-related swap.

Defines "utility operations-related swap" as one that: (1) is entered into to hedge or mitigate commercial risk; (2) is associated with specified transactions in electric energy or natural gas; and (3) is not a contract, agreement, or transaction based on, derived on, or referencing:

 an interest rate, credit, equity, or currency asset class; a metal, agricultural commodity, or crude oil or gasoline commodity of any grade, except as used as fuel for electric energy generation; and any other commodity or category of commodities identified for this purpose in a CFTC rule or order adopted in consultation with federal and state regulatory commissions.

Date: 2015-04-28
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Improving Access To Capital For Emerging Growth Companies Act

(Sec. 2) Amends the Securities Act of 1933 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 the SEC.

(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.)

(Sec. 3) Prescribes a grace period during which an issuer that was an EGC at the time it filed a confidential registration statement (or, in lieu of that, a publicly filed registration statement) for SEC review, but ceases to be an EGC, shall continue to be treated as an emerging market growth company for one year or, if earlier, until consummation of its IPO.

 (Sec. 4) Amends the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act to direct the SEC to prescribe conditions under which a registration statement filed (or submitted for confidential review) by an issuer before its IPO may omit financial disclosure information for historical periods otherwise required.

Date: 2015-04-28
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Promotion and Expansion of Private Employee Ownership Act of 2015

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) 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); and (2) allow a tax deduction for 50% of the interest incurred on loans to S corporation-sponsored ESOPs for the purchase of employer securities.

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.

Date: 2015-04-29
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Taxation
Fair Investment Opportunities for Professional Experts Act

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Securities Act of 1933 to add to the definition of accredited investor any natural person whose individual net worth, or joint net worth with his or her spouse, exceeds $1 million (adjusted every five years for inflation).

The person's net worth shall exclude:

 the person's primary residence; and as a liability any indebtedness secured by the primary residence, up to the estimated fair market value of the residence at the time of the sale of securities. Indebtedness secured by the person's primary residence in excess of the residence's estimated fair market value at the time of the sale of securities, however, shall be included in net worth as a liability.

An accredited investor shall also include any natural person:

 whose individual income exceeded $200,000 in each of the two most recent years, or whose joint income with spouse exceeded $300,000 in each of those years, and has a reasonable expectation of reaching the same income level in the current year; currently licensed or registered as a broker or investment adviser by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) (or an equivalent self-regulatory organization), or a state division responsible for licensing or registration of individuals in connection with securities activities; or whose demonstrable education or job experience qualifies as professional knowledge of a subject related to a particular investment, and whose education or job experience is verified by the FINRA or an equivalent self-regulatory organization.

Date: 2015-04-30
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

(Sec. 1) This bill amends the Federal Deposit Insurance Act with respect to the treatment of certain municipal obligations to direct the federal banking agencies to treat as a high-quality level 2A liquid asset any municipal obligation that is liquid, readily marketable, and investment grade as of the calculation date.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Comptroller of the Currency are directed to amend the rule titled "Liquidity Coverage Ratio: Liquidity Risk Measurement Standards; Final Rule" to implement this Act.

Date: 2015-05-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Streamlining Excessive and Costly Regulations Review Act

(Sec. 2) This bill requires the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), within 5 years after enactment of this Act, and thereafter at least once within each 10-year period, to:

 review each significant regulation it has issued; determine by vote whether it is ineffective, excessively burdensome, unnecessary, or inconsistent with its mandate; solicit public comment as to whether the regulation should be amended or repealed; and subsequently amend or repeal accordingly. The SEC shall report to certain congressional committees the steps it has taken to implement the results of its decision, including any action to amend or repeal the target regulation.

The bill declares that SEC determinations made pursuant to this Act are final and not subject to judicial review.

Date: 2015-05-15
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Fair Access to Investment Research Act of 2015

(Sec. 2) 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, even if a broker or dealer participates in the registered offering of a covered investment fund's securities, the investment fund research report shall not be deemed to constitute an offer for sale nor an offer to sell a security that is the subject of the offering pursuant to a registration statement that the issuer proposes to file, or has filed, or that is effective.

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.

Date: 2015-05-15
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Build America Bonds Act of 2015

 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.

Date: 2015-06-04
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Taxation
Modernizing American Manufacturing Bonds Act

Amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to qualified small issue bonds for manufacturing purposes, to: (1) expand the definition of "manufacturing facility" to include a facility which is used in the creation or production of intangible property and which is functionally related and subordinate to a facility located on the same site and financed with not more than 25% of bond proceeds, and (2) increase from $10 million to $30 million the maximum bond limitation.

Date: 2015-06-25
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Taxation
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Securities and Exchange Commission Reporting Modernization Act

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to repeal the requirement that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) compile an annual tabulation of the occasions on which it has used specified law, including the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978, to obtain access to financial records of a customer and include it in its annual report to the Congress.

(The specified law referred to is the authority of the SEC to gain access to and obtain copies of, or the information contained in, financial records of a customer from a financial institution without prior notice to the customer upon an ex parte showing to an appropriate U.S. district court that the SEC seeks such records pursuant to a subpena, if certain circumstances exist and certain requirements are met.)

Date: 2015-07-10
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Fixed Asset Relief Act of 2015

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to increase the additional depreciation allowance (bonus depreciation) from 50% to 100% of the adjusted basis of qualifying business property and to make such increased allowance permanent.

Date: 2015-07-23
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Taxation
Business Supply Chain Transparency on Trafficking and Slavery Act of 2015

 This bill expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) legislation is necessary to provide consumers information on products that are free of child labor, forced labor, slavery, and human trafficking; and (2) businesses and consumers, by means of publicly available disclosures, can avoid inadvertently promoting or sanctioning these crimes through production and purchase of raw materials, goods, and finished products that have been tainted in the supply chains.

The bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to direct the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), within one year after enactment of this Act, to promulgate regulations requiring any covered issuer of a registered security to include in its mandatory annual report a disclosure of whether the issuer has taken any measures during the year to identify and address conditions of forced labor, slavery, human trafficking, and the worst forms of child labor within the issuer's supply chains. The term "covered issuer" means an issuer that has annual worldwide global receipts in excess of $100 million.

The regulations shall mandate that the required information be disclosed on such issuer's Internet website through a conspicuous and easily understandable link to the relevant information labeled "Global Supply Chain Transparency."

The SEC must make available to the public in a searchable format on its website: (1) a list of covered issuers required to disclose such information, and (2) a compilation of the information disclosed.

Date: 2015-07-27
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
(This measure has not been amended since it was passed by the House on February 1, 2016. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

SEC Small Business Advocate Act of 2016

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to establish within the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) an Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation.

The Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation shall:

 assist small businesses and small business investors in resolving significant problems they may have with the SEC or with self-regulatory organizations; identify areas in which such businesses and investors would benefit from changes in SEC regulations or the rules of such organizations; identify problems that small businesses have with securing access to capital, including any unique challenges to minority-owned and women-owned small businesses; analyze the potential impact on such businesses and investors of proposed SEC regulations and proposed rules that are likely to have a significant economic impact on small businesses and small business capital formation; conduct outreach to such businesses and investors to solicit views on relevant capital formation issues; propose to the SEC changes in its regulations or orders, and propose to Congress legislative, administrative, or personnel changes, to mitigate problems identified and to promote the interests of such businesses and investors; consult with the Investor Advocate on such proposals and advise the Investor Advocate on small business-related issues; submit annual reports on its activities to specified congressional committees; and be responsible for planning, organizing, and executing the annual Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation. The bill also establishes the Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee, which shall provide the SEC with advice on SEC rules, regulations, and policies regarding its mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation, as they relate to:

 capital raising by emerging, privately held small businesses and publicly traded companies with less than $250 million in public market capitalization through securities offerings; trading in the securities of such businesses and companies; and public reporting and corporate governance requirements of such businesses and companies. The SEC shall assess the committee's recommendations and disclose any action it intends to take with respect to such recommendations.

Date: 2015-10-21
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Due Process Restoration Act of 2015

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to authorize a person who is a party to an administrative proceeding brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under a securities law, and against whom an order imposing a cease and desist order and a penalty may be issued at the conclusion of the proceeding, to require the SEC to terminate the proceeding. If a person requires the SEC to terminate a proceeding, the SEC may bring a civil action against that person for the same remedy that might have been imposed.

A legal or equitable remedy may be imposed on a person against whom an administrative proceeding was brought only upon a showing by the SEC of clear and convincing evidence that the person has violated the relevant provision of law.

Date: 2015-10-22
Topic: Domestic Commerce (Securities & Commodities)
Subject: Finance and financial sector