Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Texas. I would like to express my appreciation to the leadership of the House for expediting these two important bills and bringing them before the House of Representatives. I rise in support of the underlying bills, the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act and Access to Capital for Job Creators Act. Now, while I support the two bills before us, I do wish the rule was an open one. I will be voting against the rule. An open rule would allow the House to work its will in a true democratic process, allowing Members to come down to the floor and freely debate these bills. Unfortunately, in the Rules Committee, we were offered only a structured rule. Now, both of these bills accomplish something very important in terms of opening up capital markets and helping startups work. Let me discuss briefly how this whole accredited investor concept works. To be an accredited investor, you simply need to be worth $1 million or have income of $200,000 a year. Now, that's a very rarified strata of the American people. What does that mean when you're an accredited investor? It means that you can participate in a private equity offering that doesn't need to go through the full SEC process which is cumbersome and costs a lot of money. So, in effect, many venture capital opportunities, funding opportunities for startup companies, are reserved for those who are only worth above a million dollars.…”