On December 16, 2016, President Barack Obama Signed into Law HR 3784 – SEC Office of Small Business Advocate, creating an independent Office of Small Business Advocate at the SEC, reporting directly to the full Commission and Congress. This legislation was first introduced into Congress in October 2015, where it was originally co-sponsored by former House Representative John Carney (D-Del) (now Governor-Elect of the State of Delaware) and Congressman Sean Duffy (R-Wisc) and was passed unanimously by the House of Representatives in 2016. It was passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on December 9, 2016, as part of a flurry of year-end bills passed by the Senate before it recessed for the year.
The bill had broad industry support upon its introduction in October 2015, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Venture Capital Association, National Small Business Association, Small Business Investor Alliance, SBEC, and the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA), of which I served as its Chair and President at the time.
Remarkably, this Bill passed Congress unanimously without the support of the SEC. In testimony from SEC Chair Mary Jo White before the Senate Banking Committee in June 2016 she was asked by the Senate bill co-sponsor, Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), whether she supported this legislation. Her response:
“We currently have the Office of Small Business Policy within the Division of Corporate Finance. I am an advocate for small business.”
A roundabout way of saying “no” – it seems to me.
In the past I have referred to this bill as the missing title of the JOBS Act of 2012. Though it parallels to a large extent to the SEC Office of Investor Advocate – part of the Dodd Frank Act of 2010 – the need for this legislation goes back decades.
The successful passage of this law was the result of the participation and support of many individual and groups. However, I am proud to have had a major role in initiating this legislation, among other things:
- I was the first person to publicly advocate for this legislation, in Feb 2014, in an article published on Crowdfund Insider.
- I met with former SEC Commissioner Daniel M. Gallagher in June 2014 to advocate for this bill.
- I was cited by Commissioner Gallagher in a public address (Note 36) by Commissioner Gallagher given at the Heritage Foundation in September 2014 where he advocated for the need for a permanent Office of Small Business Advocate.
- I worked with the original sponsor, Rep. John Carney (D-Del) (now Governor-elect of Delaware) in drafting this legislation prior to its introduction in Congress.
- I assisted in procuring the initial Republican co-sponsor – Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis).
A special thank you is in order for SEC Commissioner Gallagher. Without his public and vocal support for this legislation it might have taken many more years for this historic legislation to become a reality.
A copy of the Bill can be found here.
For those of you who want to dig deeper on this subject, here is some background material on the Bill and my role in its journey:
