Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act

Following a decrease in small business activity in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Congress considered a number of solutions to help spur economic growth.In December 2011, Rep. Stephen Lee Fincher (R-TN) introduced into the House the Reopening American Capital Markets to Emerging Growth Companies Act (H.R.AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant, who spent six months lobbying for JOBS Act reforms,[15] recalls: It ended up being a giant dog's breakfast of different bills combined together, and then some genius, probably some congressional staffer, said "How are we gonna get this thing to pass?[16] On March 13, the same day that the Act was placed on the Senate legislative calendar, Sen. Jeff Merkley introduced a revised version of his CROWDFUND bill, S.2190, cosponsored by Michael Bennet (D-CO), Scott Brown (R-MA), and Mary Landrieu (D-LA).[18] On March 19, during the JOBS Act's debate in the Senate, Merkley, Bennet, and Brown amended the legislation by swapping out the language from H.R.2930 and substituting in S.2190.It is also supported by the National Venture Capital Association, which described the bill as modernizing regulations that were put in place almost 100 years before, by among other things facilitating use of online services to make investments in small companies.[34][35] Academic research shows that the Act lead to public firms making more acquisitions, doing so more quickly after listing, and also increase other forms of investment.Kiva, an organization that allows individual web users to support microloans managed by intermediaries in developing countries, complies with SEC regulations by making it impossible for lenders to earn a positive financial return.[40][41] The first company to complete an initial public offering using provisions under the Jobs Act was Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage (NYSE:NGVC) on July 25, 2012.State-by-state registration was one of the chief reasons the Government Accountability Office found for the remarkably low interest in Regulation A offerings pre-JOBS Act.[27] The Consumer Federation of America characterized an earlier version of the legislation as "the dangerous and discredited notion that the way to create jobs is to weaken regulatory protections".[46] Criticisms were levied against the House version of the bill as "gutting regulations designed to safeguard investors",[50] legalizing boiler room operations,[51] "reliev[ing] businesses that are preparing to go public from some of the most important auditing regulations that Congress passed after the Enron debacle",[52] and "a terrible package of bills that would undo essential investor protections, reduce market transparency and distort the efficient allocation of capital".[60] In an open meeting March 25, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) elected to approve and release the long-awaited final rules for Title IV of the JOBS Act (commonly referred to as Regulation A+).Per the final rules, under Regulation A companies will be permitted to offer and sell up to $50 million of securities to the general public subject to certain eligibility, disclosure and reporting requirements.