Foundation of the Federal Bar Association Charter Amendments Act of 2025

Mr. Speaker, I also rise in support of H.R. 4429, the Developing and Empowering our Aspiring Leaders Act, or DEAL Act, which is a critical bill to support innovation, entrepreneurship, and capital formation.

The venture capital industry provides vital funding for early-stage startups at points in their life cycle when they are generally deemed to be too risky for traditional bank financing or for raising money on the public market. This basically means that if we are going to have a growing and innovative economy, then we have to have a healthy venture capital sector.

Historically, venture capital earns investor returns and frees up more capital to recycle in other companies by selling their mature portfolio companies to strategic investors or taking them public on public markets.

For a variety of reasons, including public company reporting obligations, economic uncertainty, and the rise of private equity, U.S. companies today are staying private much longer, which has reduced the opportunities for venture capital firms to recycle their investment dollars.

Some venture capital firms have sought to create new liquidity options through secondary acquisitions and investments in other VC funds. This is what Congresswoman Wagner was referring to, but that option right now is constrained by provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 that limit venture capital funds' ability to invest in these so- called fund of funds to only 20 percent of their commitments.

That rule was very well-intentioned when passed, and the intent was to ensure that VC firms remained focused on direct investments in early-stage startups. However, it was crafted for a very different financial market than we have today.

I would also note that that constraint is irrelevant to the larger, more well-known VC funds who have the resources to shoulder the compliance burdens associated with registering with the SEC as registered investment advisers. They can already do this, but they are the big ones. They are the ones based in San Francisco and New York. That option isn't available for these emerging regional fund managers located in the middle of the country. Many of those funds increasingly depend on that fund-of-funds model.

What the DEAL Act does is just provides greater flexibility to those smaller VC funds while still ensuring that investors are protected and that fund managers continue to prioritize direct funding in small businesses. It does this by revising the existing rules to raise the cap from 20 percent in fund of funds up to 49 percent but still requiring that the majority of their investments are directly in portfolio companies.

In other words, the DEAL Act supports growth in the startup economy and ensures that capital reaches the communities and innovators who need it most.

I thank my fellow Midwesterner and friend, Congresswoman Wagner, for her leadership on this. I am proud to lead this important legislation, and I urge all my colleagues to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Ohio for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to sponsor H.R. 4429, the Developing and Empowering our Aspiring Leaders, or DEAL, Act.

This bill, which passed with almost unanimous support out of the Financial Services Committee, seeks to ensure the United States remains the most entrepreneurial country in the world, where the next great companies are founded and funded.

It is often said that small businesses are the engine of the American economy, and that is an absolute truth. Small businesses make up 99 percent of U.S. employers, and they are the driving force behind the creation of a majority of new jobs.

The entrepreneurs leading these companies are building something new, taking real risks, and driving growth in communities across the Nation, but too often, they can't get a fair shot at investment.

Right now, our capital markets suffer from an extreme geographic imbalance. The data is stark. Nearly 70 percent of venture capital flows to three States, Mr. Speaker: California, New York, and Massachusetts.

This leaves entire regions of the country struggling to access funding. It leaves communities in the Midwest and the South without the capital they need to build and scale businesses. Access to capital is not just a coastal issue. It is a national economic necessity.

This capital divide is why the DEAL Act is so critically important. This bill is a targeted, forward-looking effort to modernize outdated rules and channel investment to where it is needed most.

The DEAL Act fundamentally strengthens the ability of capital to reach more founders and more communities. It achieves this by allowing larger venture funds to invest directly in smaller, regional funds, a fund-of-funds investment.

This mechanism is a game changer, Mr. Speaker. It means more funding for startups, more opportunities for businesses that might otherwise be overlooked, and more innovation happening everywhere, not just in a handful of elite ZIP Codes.

Newer, regional venture funds are often best positioned to back the entrepreneurs who are building businesses on Main Street. The DEAL Act ensures that these funds can expand that important work, giving them the flexibility to partner with larger institutions to reach a wider base of early-stage companies.

H.R. 4429 ensures our policies are helping capital move efficiently and effectively, empowering those taking risks to build something new, and helping good ideas grow into great companies.

I thank Chairman Hill for his support, and also I thank Congressman Casten for joining me and co-leading this commonsense and bipartisan piece of legislation.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 616) to amend title 36, United States Code, to revise the Federal charter for the Foundation of the Federal Bar Association.

Madam 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 S. 616.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of S. 616, the Foundation of the Federal Bar Association Charter Amendments Act of 2025.

The Federal Bar Association was founded in 1920 as a nonprofit organization. In 1954, Congress chartered the Federal Bar Association as a congressionally chartered organization under title 36.

The FBA seeks to strengthen the Federal legal system and administration of justice by providing services to Federal practitioners, the Federal judiciary, and the public.

The FBA serves the Federal legal community by promoting standards of professional competence and ethical conduct, providing educational programs to the public and the profession, and facilitating the administration of justice. The FBA is also committed to bringing civics education programs to classrooms across the country.

Over the years, it has become necessary for the FBA to update its bylaws. Because the FBA is a congressionally chartered organization, it takes an act of Congress to make changes in its charter to permit the FBA to update those bylaws.

S. 616 amends the FBA's current charter in several ways: It removes the requirement for the FBA to be incorporated and domiciled in Washington, D.C.;

It allows the board of directors to choose the location of the principal office;

It specifies that the FBA's bylaws establish membership requirements, responsibilities of the board of directors, and the election of officers;

It prohibits a director or officer from contributing or participating in political activities;

It prohibits loans to members and employees; and

It specifies that in the event of dissolution, any remaining assets are to be distributed by as provided by the board of directors.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of S. 616, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague Mr. Davidson for his broad work in the capital market space and for leading us here on the floor today.

I rise to urge my colleagues to support the Expanding WKSI Eligibility Act. I thank my co-leads, Mr. Fields, as well as Chairman Hill and Ranking Member Waters, for their support.

We have far too many regulations in the United States, and this bill is about rightsizing our regulations in support of investments and jobs.

This commonsense bill will help more well-run companies responsibly raise money in the public markets. It rightsizes regulatory burdens and frees up more resources for companies to invest in American jobs and American innovation.

The well-known seasoned issuer--also known as WKSI--status was first implemented around 20 years ago. It allows qualified public companies in good standing to use automatic shelf registration. This reduces the cost and complexity of a public offering and allows companies to be more responsive to market conditions.

The WKSI construct has a track record of success in expanding access to public markets while protecting investors.

According to Joel Trotter, one of the authors of the JOBS Act, ``Decades of successful experience show that the well-known seasoned issuer category is long overdue for expansion.''

I couldn't agree more, and this bill does exactly that. It lowers the size threshold for WKSI qualification while maintaining all the existing good governance requirements.

In other words, more small and midsized American public companies will be able to benefit from the privileges that already exist for larger businesses with similar compliance records.

The Expanding WKSI Eligibility Act also includes a helpful reporting requirement for the Securities and Exchange Commission. This report will provide Congress and the public with a better understanding of how many previously ineligible companies are trying to regain their WKSI status. Doing so will gain the insight needed to make future legislative adjustments.

The Expanding WKSI Eligibility Act is a tailored, regulatory improvement

that will support small and midsized businesses, job creators, and investments.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support this legislation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4430, which expands the number of public companies that can qualify as a well-known seasoned issuer, or WKSI. This designation is a special status conferred on companies that frequently raise money by issuing securities from the public.

Think of WKSI status like having frequent-flyer privileges. It allows companies that are well known to regulators and the public to raise money without needing permission. These companies are widely followed in the markets, so there are a lot of eyes, so to speak, watching what they are doing. The main requirement for a company to meet WKSI status is that it has previously issued $700 million or more in securities.

The current bill would lower that threshold to $400 million. By reducing the current WKSI threshold, the bill allows an additional 400 companies to qualify on top of the 2,000 or so companies that qualify today.

One final thing this bill does is provide transparency around companies that have been disqualified from operating as WKSIs. Notably, a company can lose its WKSI status if it has been convicted of a securities-related felony or a misdemeanor or has violated the antifraud provisions of the securities laws. Notable examples include UBS and Bank of America, which each previously lost their WKSI status due to fraud violations.

However, even if a company loses their status through such a violation, it can ask the SEC for a waiver to continue operating as a WKSI. UBS and Bank of America both sought and received such waivers.

Importantly, though, waivers are rarely formally denied because SEC staff normally gives a company a heads-up that their waiver is likely to be denied, so many companies simply withdraw their waiver requests. The final provision of this bill provides investors on an annual basis a view into the number of waiver requests that have been withdrawn.

Mr. Speaker, I support this bill and urge all Members to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

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