Investing in Main Street Act of 2023

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of my bill, H.R. 400, the Investing in Main Street Act, which would make commonsense changes to the small business investing laws to maximize the amount that banks may invest in SBA-certified small business investment companies or SBICs.

Even though banking rules allow financial institutions to invest up to 15 percent of their capital and surplus in SBICs, small business investing rules cap these same investments far lower, at just 5 percent.

The Investing in Main Street Act simply fixes this outdated inconsistency to allow banks to invest the full 15 percent in SBICs. Raising this cap will dramatically increase the amount of investment capital available to our country's small businesses for whom even small investments can mean so much.

Already, SBICs have helped companies like Costco, Apple, and Intel get off the ground back when they were just starting out; and SBICs fill a gap in the investment ecosystem and level the playing field for the smallest businesses which often face the highest barriers to securing investments from traditional private investors.

The nearly 300 certified SBICs in operation today have invested or committed $38 billion in small businesses nationwide; and last year alone, SBICs provided $7.9 billion in funding to over 1,200 small businesses and startups.

By raising the investment cap from 5 percent to 15 percent, we could potentially triple those numbers in the years to come. The growth will be especially important as America's entrepreneurship rates continue to soar as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

I thank Representative Garbarino for his partnership on this legislation, and Chairman Williams and Ranking Member Velazquez for their strong support. I urge a ``yes'' vote on this bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source