Securities Act of 2008

SECURITIES ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - September 09, 2008)

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Ms. PRYCE of Ohio. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Please let me begin by thanking my chairman for those very, very kind, overly kind remarks. I will miss working with him and on this committee. It has been a wonderful experience for me, and working in a bipartisan, nonpartisan way with Chairman Kanjorski and others on the committee has been an experience that I will always value. So, thank you, sir.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6513, the Securities Act of 2008. This legislation before us today is a commonsense, bipartisan bill developed by Chairman Kanjorski, Chairman Frank, Ranking Member Bachus, and myself.

The bill enhances investor protection, capital market competitiveness, makes the SEC a more effective agency, and the legislation makes our regulation and standards setter, the SEC, more accountable to the capital markets.

H.R. 6513 would enact components of the Securities and Exchange Commission's legislative requests submitted to Congress in both 2007 and 2008. The bill also amends the Securities Investor Protection Act, or SIPA, to allow investors to hold all equity-related positions in a single portfolio margin account. The SIPA amendment creates a clear pathway for regulators to follow in order to realize the state-of-the-art portfolio-based margining system for customers of broker-dealers.

The SIPA amendment would enhance the competitiveness of U.S. markets and eliminate inefficiencies in our current regulatory regime that put U.S. firms and customers at a competitive disadvantage internationally.

Mr. Speaker, this bill also includes bills passed by the House last year under suspension, including H.R. 755, introduced by Representative GEOFF DAVIS, benefiting investors by increasing the usability of financial reports and ensuring that financial regulators are committed to meaningful and clear disclosures; H.R. 2868, by Representatives MEEKS and FOSSELLA, allowing U.S. exchanges to create listing tiers for smaller companies. This is a welcome tool to promote our capital markets as well as attract and retain investment capital in the United States. And H.R. 3505, by Representative PETER ROSKAM, which makes technical corrections to the Federal securities laws, making sure our securities laws are unambiguous, grammatically correct, and current.

The SEC endorsed this legislation, as did the North American Securities Administrators Association and a large coalition of U.S. exchanges. In this time of tumult in our marketplaces in this country and elsewhere, it is appropriate legislation.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Kevin Edgar, Todd Harper, and Jason Pitcock from the Capital Market Subcommittee staff; Peter Roberson, Deborah Silberman, and Lawranne Stewart from Chairman Frank's staff for all their hard work on this legislation, as well as Peter Freeman from my staff.

I urge my colleagues to support the Securities Act of 2008. I thank the chairman once again for his kind words.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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