Political Quotes

“I thank my friend and classmate from Georgia, Mr. Woodall, for the opportunity to be here. Mr. Speaker, more and more baby boomers retire every day, and it has been estimated that approximately $10 trillion of privately owned, small, and family-run businesses will either be closed or, if possible, sold to a new generation of entrepreneurs in the coming years. Mergers and acquisitions--or M&A as it is oftentimes referred to-- brokers play a critical role in facilitating the transfer of ownership of these smaller, privately held companies. However, today's one-size- fits-all system of broker-dealer regulation unnecessarily burdens business sellers and buyers with the pass-through of heavy regulatory compliance costs that do not provide significant incremental benefits in privately negotiated M&A transactions. Today, Federal securities regulations technically require local mergers and acquisitions brokers to be registered and regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and FINRA, just like Wall Street investment bankers. Those bankers are trying to sell or buy publicly traded companies. That is right; anyone brokering the sale of a hometown small business in your district or in mine, like in Holland, Michigan, must be federally registered and regulated as a securities broker-dealer, in addition to State law requirements, regardless of the size of the business or the sale transaction.…”