To amend the Federal securities laws to specify the periods for which financial statements are required to be provided by an emerging growth company, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chair of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Mrs. Wagner, for leading our committee Republicans' capital formation agenda on the Financial Services Committee. She has done a fantastic job.

I thank the Members of the minority party for joining with us in passing some of these important bills.

By the end of today, we will haved passed 11 of those bills through the House of Representatives in the last 2 weeks. I thank the Members for their work there.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2608. This bill clarifies the periods for which financial statements are required to be provided by an emerging growth company.

Now, an emerging growth company is an important provision of the JOBS Act of 2012. These are smaller companies that are growing rapidly, and the idea here is we want them to be able to access the public markets more quickly.

Now, let me stop here. It is a real pleasure to spend time on the House floor getting back to the policy that I am most steeped in and most interested in and, quite frankly, thrilled that I am not talking about the debt ceiling. Thank you for your indulgence there.

This important provision of the JOBS Act, called the emerging growth company piece of the JOBS Act, has this designation of an IPO on-ramp. The idea here is these are smaller revenue companies, and in their growth, we want them to be able to get to the public markets as quickly as they can.

Emerging growth companies are given a 5-year ramping period in the public markets to comply with a lot of regulatory requirements that public companies are obligated to comply with.

The goal here was to have an accommodation to have more companies go public here in the United States, and it has worked. This was title I of the JOBS Act. The success of this provision was as a direct result of it being self-executing. We wrote the law, and instantly, that day, people started using the statute.

Within the first 2 years of enactment of the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies resulted in 85 percent of all U.S. IPOs. Additionally, this specific accommodation for 2 years of audited financial statements was utilized by 65 percent of emerging growth companies within the first 2 years of the JOBS Act.

Despite the success of the JOBS Act IPO on-ramp, there are clarifications Congress should make to maximize the utility of these provisions. For example, there are instances where an emerging growth company, or a company that qualifies as such during its initial public offering, must provide financial statements for periods earlier than 2 years.

The first instance is when an emerging growth company acquires a significant business. The emerging growth company must present 3 years of financial statements, even though the post-merger company also qualifies as an emerging growth company. This is kind of a wonky failure of the statute.

The second instance is when a company qualifies as an emerging growth company during its IPO but later tries to conduct a follow-on offering to raise capital after it loses its emerging growth company status. In such instances, the company would also be required to provide 3 years of financial statements.

This bill updates emerging growth company financial reporting accommodations to clarify that an emerging growth company, as well as any company that qualifies as such, when it is conducting its initial public offering, does not need to provide financial statements for a period earlier than 2 years, which is required during the emerging growth company's initial public offering. That is a lot of words.

This update will increase efficiency by ensuring that these companies will be able to consistently rely on the JOBS Act's scaled financial reporting requirement accommodation. It will eliminate an aberrational result that actually has been shown to require burdensome and unnecessary financial reporting obligations.

This bill clearly establishes that an emerging growth company will not be required to provide audited financial statements for any period earlier than 2 years, including in those instances I mentioned that were not previously addressed in the original JOBS Act.

Mr. Speaker, after 11 years of the JOBS Act, this particular section of the JOBS Act has shown that it has been wonderfully successful. We have more IPOs using the statute than any other change in security laws we have made as a Congress in recent memory. That is a great success.

We want to update that existing statute, and we are doing so in a bipartisan way. That should be a welcome sign for Congress, that we can do complicated things in a bipartisan way. That is what we are here to do.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my bipartisan bill, the Senior Security Act, to help protect vulnerable seniors who are being targeted by fraudsters who seek to take financial advantage of them.

I first thank my colleague, Republican Congresswoman Ann Wagner, for her friendship and her leadership. I am very grateful for her continued fight to have the backs of our seniors.

Mr. Speaker, I also thank Senators Sinema and Collins, who have introduced the companion legislation to the Senior Security Act in the United States Senate.

This legislation builds on Congresswoman Wagner's and my previous

work this Congress when we advanced the Financial Exploitation Prevention Act that would give asset managers more tools to prevent suspected financial exploitation of seniors and vulnerable adults.

Since I took office, I have been committed to helping seniors save their hard-earned money for retirement, help cut their taxes, afford prescription drugs, and protect Social Security and Medicare so that, at the end of the day, they can afford to stay where I live in northern New Jersey and enjoy their lives with their friends, children, and grandchildren.

Unfortunately, far too many of our seniors have had their hard-earned retirement savings stolen right out from under them when a scammer calls or shows up at their door. Millions of seniors across the country, including my own late mother, have been the victims of financial scams, and far too many have been cheated out of their retirement savings.

It is appalling. It is offensive. It is simply unacceptable. These senior scams cost older Americans more than $36 billion a year, often hitting their retirement nest eggs, not to mention the pain and anxiety you can't put a dollar figure on. Plus, senior scams have more than doubled since 2020.

We are here today to do something about it by advancing the Senior Security Act to help protect American seniors from these shameless criminals.

This bipartisan bill would create a senior investor task force at the Securities and Exchange Commission that will exclusively focus on how seniors are being targeted by fraudsters who seek to take financial advantage of them.

Every 2 years, the task force will be required to submit a report to Congress outlining trends and innovations, like robocalls and voice spoofing, that are impacting senior investors, helping us stay ahead of changes in financial scams as they arise.

Everyone should know they are incredibly sophisticated now. Literally through AI and other spoofing, it sounds like someone's grandchild calling when they scam them.

The task force will give law enforcement stronger tools and information. The task force will coordinate with other Federal regulators, State regulators, and law enforcement to ensure we are doing as much as we can at every level of government to stop hucksters from scamming our seniors. The task force will be a cop on the beat to make sure we keep up with the changes in financial scams and, again, stay ahead of new issues.

Our seniors have given us so much. We should always have their backs, look out for them, and help protect them from predators and innovative scammers who want to take advantage of them.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense, bipartisan legislation, the Senior Security Act. I thank my colleagues and Congresswoman Wagner, again, for her friendship and her leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I do have a question for the chairwoman of our subcommittee. We are taking these bills in a different order than I was told. We are now dealing with H.R. 2593. Will we then return to H.R. 2608 and H.R. 2610?

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Missouri.

Mr. Speaker, the one person that may be most surprised by us going out of order is the author of this bill, Mr. Gottheimer. I know he is on his way now to this floor, so in order for him to get here before he would have expected to be needed, I will speak very slowly.

Mr. Speaker, I rise slowly in support of H.R. 2593, the Senior Security Act sponsored by the gentleman from New Jersey, who is on his way to this floor right now.

Scams targeting seniors, which can include harassing robocalls and phone calls impersonating the government, cost older Americans more than $36 billion a year, according to the National Council on Aging. According to AARP, these kinds of senior scams have more than doubled just since 2020.

Financial scams can leave a devastating and lasting impact on our seniors, causing significant financial loss. Recovering lost funds is a very challenging process, and in many cases, the money is simply not retrieved.

Scams also lead to significant emotional distress, resulting in feelings of embarrassment, guilt, shame, and a diminished sense of self-worth. The emotional impact can exacerbate health conditions or lead to depression and anxiety. Once scammed, seniors might lose trust in people, which can lead to further isolation and reluctance to seek help.

Mr. Gottheimer's bill takes key steps to help protect older Americans nationwide from getting scammed out of their hard-earned money by establishing a senior investor task force within the SEC. This task force must report on topics relating to investors over the age of 65 and make recommendations for actions to address problems encountered by senior investors.

I will also point out that this is important for our capital markets and for companies trying to raise money because every time a senior is subject to one of these scams, others become less interested in investing, and we need Americans to feel that they are protected and not cheated when they invest in stocks, bonds, and our capital markets.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill. I am pleased that the gentleman from New Jersey has arrived, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Gottheimer), the author of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this bill passed in committee 49-0. Our seniors are particularly vulnerable to financial scams. As Members of Congress, we must work to find effective ways to protect seniors from scamsters and fraudsters.

Mr. Gottheimer's bill, a bill I commend him for drafting and one that, once again, got 49 votes to 0 in our committee--I commend him for crafting this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2593) to create an interdivisional taskforce at the Securities and Exchange Commission for senior investors, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2593, the Senior Security Act. I am proud to be an original cosponsor of this bill, and I thank my colleagues from both sides of the aisle, Representatives Gottheimer and Lawler, for working on this important piece of bipartisan legislation that will assist in the protection of our senior investors.

Fraud and exploitation of any kind in our capital markets threaten the integrity of our markets. It is especially problematic when such fraudulent activity targets senior investors.

According to some reports, around 20 percent of senior investors fall prey to fraudulent investment schemes. Similar reports show that seniors lose nearly $3 billion annually from financial fraud and exploitation.

The Senior Security Act is designed to support and enhance efforts to protect against and prevent the financial exploitation of senior investors.

This bill establishes the senior investors task force within the Securities and Exchange Commission, which must report on industry trends and serious issues impacting investors over the age of 65. The task force will also help inform policymaking in Washington by making recommendations for legislative or regulatory actions to address problems encountered by our senior investors.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2593 has received very strong bipartisan support in the past, passing by suspension in both the 116th and 117th Congresses. It remains a sensible solution to ensure that senior investors receive adequate protection against fraud and exploitation.

For this reason, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2593, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield for the purpose of a colloquy?

Mr. Speaker, I am happy to inform the ranking member that we may be a bit out of order here. My deepest apologies, and we will be returning to that order right after this bill is finished.

Mr. Speaker, I, too, am pleased to see that the author of the bill, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Gottheimer), is here to speak on his very fine piece of legislation that we are all supportive of, in a bipartisan manner, H.R. 2593, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 2593, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, once again, I urge all my colleagues to support H.R. 2593, a wonderful piece of bipartisan legislation that is going to help our seniors have the kind of financial security that they need going forward.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2608, sponsored by the gentleman from North Carolina.

I want to put this bill in context. The first two bills we considered in this session dealt with private offerings, where there is very limited investor protection and where there are requirements as to who is allowed to invest.

We are now focusing on public companies where there is a lot of investor protection and where anyone can invest and anyone who buys can then freely sell it to anyone else.

Just as by way of illustration, we are talking about, in this bill, whether there will be 2 or 3 years of audited financial statements for certain public companies. That differs from the private offerings that we considered in the first two bills. Private offerings are not required to have any audited financial statements.

A special accommodation has been made to emerging growth companies, known as EGCs, who are obligated to provide 2 years of audited financial statements when they first provide an initial public offering.

Other companies, on the other hand, are required to provide 3 years of audited financial statements when they go public. In some situations, however, an EGC must provide 3 years of audited financials, including cases where they acquire another company.

This bill would recognize that whatever standards we have when the company first goes public, those standards being for 2 years of audited financials, I think are logically applied in certain other circumstances. One of those is where the company goes to the public a second time for a follow-on offering, and the other is when the company uses its stock to acquire a company.

We have a rule that, for the most important gatekeeping requirement, says 2 years of audited financials. This bill would provide that same standard for emerging growth companies in these two other types of situations. This will harmonize the EGC framework, making sure that these smaller reporting companies have a scaled-down obligation but still do provide 2 years of audited financials.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this important bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume for closing.

This bill passed our committee by a 41-to-0 vote. In passing H.R. 2608, Congress is making sure that smaller companies have scaled-down disclosure obligations in all instances rather than just the initial public offering. We apply the same standard to acquisitions and follow- on offerings. This is a commonsense reform. It reduces the burden on small companies and still provides investors with 2 years of audited financial statements.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.