Senate Debates So-Called Small-Business Bill - NYTimes.com

The Agenda

How small-business issues are shaping politics and policy.

The Senate has taken up the House?s so-called JOBS bill, which ostensibly makes it easier for small companies, and many large ones as well, to seek investment in the capital markets, and there are conflicting and confusing reports about what will become of the House?s handiwork on the Senate floor. Though described as a small-business bill, the House?s legislation, as we reported on Tuesday, eases disclosure and oversight requirements for small and giant corporations alike, and some critics of the House?s work had hoped Senate Democrats would temper some of the JOBS bill?s more controversial provisions.

Indeed, on Thursday, Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Carl Levin of Michigan, and Jack Reed of Rhode Island introduced what they called the INVEST Act (for ?The Invigorate New Ventures and Entrepreneurs to Succeed Today in America Act of 2012?). The INVEST Act addresses two of the concerns raised in the earlier post: it would limit so-called emerging growth companies to those with annual revenue of $350 million or less (as opposed to $1 billion in the House bill), and it would raise the number of shareholders of record that obligate a public company to make regular disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission from 500 to just 750 ? instead of the 2,000 stipulated by the House bill. It would also apply more oversight and investor protection to ?crowdfunded? public offerings.

But on Friday, Roll Call, the Capitol Hill news service, reported, essentially, that the fix was in. Roll Call explained that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had structured the debate so that the alternative proposed by the Senate Democrats had little chance of passing.

According to Roll Call, Mr. Reid:

moved to limit amendments on a House-passed JOBS Act and set up two procedural votes for Tuesday ? the only amendments expected to be offered to the measure. ? The first vote Tuesday will be whether to cut off debate on a Democratic substitute package that includes many of the changes some Democrats were hoping to make as part of a Senate version of the House bill. Offering it as an amendment, rather than the underlying bill, often makes it harder to prevail on the Senate floor.

The amendment would require 60 votes to pass, and it is ?unclear,? as Roll Call put it, whether any Republicans would vote for it. Seven Republicans would need to join the entire Democratic caucus for the amendment to pass.

The other vote that Mr. Reid has allowed would cut off debate on an amendment that would reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, a government entity that helps finance foreign purchases of American. goods. The bank?s legal authority expires at the end of May, and it is fast approaching its $100 billion lending cap. That amendment has bipartisan support and is expected to pass.

Then, presumably, the Senate would vote on the House JOBS bill, unchanged except for the Export-Import Bank reauthorization. Roll Call?s interviews with several Democratic skeptics suggest that most of them are resigned to voting in favor of what one called ?a deeply flawed House bill.?

But if anyone deserves blame, or credit, for the speed with which the JOBS bill appears likely to become law, it?s the White House. President Obama?s enthusiastic support for the measures ? he actually proposed some of them himself, in broad terms ? gave House Democrats little cover to oppose the omnibus bill last week, even though their support was tepid at best, and even less cover for Senate Democrats this week, now that the House has voted so decisively.

NPR has reported that the White House on Thursday ?supports efforts to safeguard against abuse? (those are NPR?s words, not the White House?s), but the opportunity for that ? and for limiting the bill to truly small companies ? is fading fast.

Source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/senate-prepares-to-debate-so-called-small-business-bill/

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