On the recordSeptember 8, 2016
The gentleman talked about the Micro Offering Safe Harbor Act. Again, I think that there is the kernel of a good idea there, if the good idea would be to streamline the excess regulation above and beyond the consumer safeguards that were put in the JOBS Act; if the bill, for instance, were to take some of the best practices from the States, including my home State of Colorado, around crowdfunding and put them into a revised version of Federal direction. To be clear, I would join my colleagues in agreeing that the administration went well beyond the expressed legislative intent and legislative language of the JOBS Act in creating barriers to micro financing across the country. Unfortunately, that is not what this bill does. It cuts back by providing gaping loopholes on the consumer protections that Congress very thoughtfully intended to put in the JOBS Act. So these are not the unintended regulatory aspects that the administration added to the JOBS Act. These are cutting away at the very consumer protections which Congress deliberately--including, as one of the coauthors of the bill along with my Republican colleagues, Mr. Issa and many others, the protections that we actually put into the bill, this would gut. So, again, a kernel of a good idea. Perhaps the inception of this bill is, hey, we messed up on the implementation of crowdfunding. Let's fix it. Unfortunately, that is not what this bill does.…





