Ed Royce: “I am rising in strong support of the rule on the underlying bill. Included in this package of bills before us today is…”

“I am rising in strong support of the rule on the underlying bill. Included in this package of bills before us today is the National Securities Exchange Regulatory Parity Act. This is a bipartisan bill, and it is to ensure that future regulation can keep pace with--and not stifle--innovation in our equity markets. The SEC's interpretation of the current law has created a two-tiered playing field by giving unintended preferential treatment to three named exchanges. Now, one of those three no longer exists. Enactment of the National Securities Exchange Parity Act would strike references to particular stock exchanges in the 1933 Securities Act, and the bill would make it clear that the blue sky exemption from State-by-State registration is extended to all national securities exchanges registered with the SEC. So why is that particular exemption important? If you were to ask anyone from Massachusetts, for example, who tried to invest in Apple during its IPO, State regulators banned the stock for being ``too risky'' under rules ``aimed at weeding out highfliers that didn't have solid earnings foundations.'' Today, Apple is up 43,000 percent and is flirting with a $1 trillion market cap. The bill before us today increases the number of securities that will not be forced to register on a State-by-State basis, while maintaining important investor protections. The SEC is and will remain the primary enforcement agency of securities fraud.…”