Ranking Member Maxine Waters Announces Passage of Six Bipartisan Bills to Increase Government Transparency, Strengthen Oversight, and Expand Access to Capital
Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, announced that the House of Representatives passed six bipartisan bills under suspension of the rules. This is a procedure generally used to quickly pass bills which enjoy broad, bipartisan support. Next, these bills will await a vote in the Senate.
H.R. 4423, the “No New Burma Funds Act” is a bill offered by Representative Nikema Williams (D-GA), that would require the Treasury to press the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), an arm of the World Bank, to maintain its pauses on disbursing money to Burma and making new financing commitments to Burma’s government.
H.R. 3716, the “Systemic Risk Authority Transparency Act” is a bill offered by Representative Al Green (D-TX), that would require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and relevant Federal banking regulators to issue reports within specified timeframes if regulators invoke the systemic risk exception as they did to manage the failures of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank in 2023. These reports would provide Congress and the public with an analysis to identify the causes of major bank failures that require the use of financial stability authorities, including any management, supervisory, or regulatory shortcomings that contributed to the failures.
H.R. 4429, the “Developing and Empowering our Aspiring Leaders Act of 2025” is a bill offered by Representative Sean Casten (D-IL) and Representative Ann Wagner (R-MO), that would direct the Securities and Exchange Commission to revise venture capital investment regulations to allow additional types of investments to be considered as qualifying investments.
H.R. 4431, the “Improving Capital Allocation for Newcomers Act of 2025” is a bill offered by Representative Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) and Representative William Timmons (R-SC), that would expand qualification requirements for venture capital funds to include investment firms with more owners and capital contributions.
H.R. 4430, the “Expanding WKSI Eligibility Act” is a bill offered by Representative Cleo Fields (D-LA), Representative Jim Himes (D-CT), and Representative Bryan Steil (R-WI), that would lower the threshold for a company to qualify as a well-known seasoned issuers (“WKSI”), which is a special status conferred upon companies that frequently raise large amounts of money from the public. With WKSI status, companies that are active in our public markets can raise money on an as-needed basis without needing to have each successive registration statement reviewed and signed off on by SEC staff.
H.R. 225, the “HUD Transparency Act” is a bill offered by Representative Monica De La Cruz (R-TX), that would require the Inspector General (IG) of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to testify before Congress on an annual basis.
