Recent SEC Proposals to Come Under Scrutiny of Financial Services Committee

Link: https://www.ai-cio.com/news/sec-recent-proposals-to-come-under-scrutiny-of-financial-services-committee/

Excerpt:

The House Committee on Financial Services will hold an oversight hearing on the Securities and Exchange Commission next Wednesday and Chairman Gary Gensler is expected to testify. The SEC’s proposed budget and their recent proposals, especially the climate disclosure proposal will all likely be discussed.

The SEC requested $2.436 billion for 2024, an increase of $265 million from this year primarily to hire new staff. The new hires are proportionally concentrated in the Divisions of Risk Analysis and Investment Management, whose staffs would increase by more than 5% each. The largest aggregate staffing increase would be to the Division of Enforcement, from its current 1,505 positions to 1,558.

…..

Womack also suggested that the SEC’s proposal on climate disclosure, which would require entities registered with the SEC to disclose their carbon emissions, was not within the SEC’s legal authority, a concern shared by several other Republican members of the committee.

The climate disclosure proposal has been a sensitive issue for agricultural interests. Representative Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, emphasized the potential impact of this rule on farmers at the hearing. She said that this proposal would be bad for farmers in her state who would have to collect and disclose their emissions data to issue securities and to work with larger businesses who must collect emissions data from their value chain.

Representative Michael Cloud, R-Texas, shared this sentiment during the hearing and said that any issuer subject to Scope 3 disclosure would compel farms in their supply chain to collect this data, a tedious process, which might reduce farmer’s access to credit if they do not comply.

Author(s): Paul Mulholland

Publication Date: 12 April 2023

Publication Site: ai-CIO

Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Financial Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on “An Enduring Legacy: The Role of Financial Institutions in the Horrors of Slavery and the Need for Atonement, Part Two”

Link: https://financialservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/hhrg-117-ba09-wstate-darityw-20221207.pdf

Testimony for this hearing: https://financialservices.house.gov/events/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=409969

Excerpt:

The collective amount required to close the disparity for approximately 40 million black American
descendants of persons enslaved in the United States will come to at least $14 trillion. This is a sum that
cannot be met reasonably by private donors or other levels of government. If generous donors created a
fund to eliminate the racial wealth gap by contributing $1 billion monthly, it would take a millennium to
reach $14 trillion. The combined budgets of all state and local governments used to meet all of their
obligations amount to less than $5 trillion.

Financial institutions were key supporters and beneficiaries of American slavery. The full scope of
creditor-debtor relationships interlocked with the slave plantation system has yet to be documented
adequately. For the record details are needed about which organizations were the financiers for the
New England textile industry, which bank or banks had Brooks Brothers, producers of “plantation wear”
for both the enslaved and the enslavers, as a client, and who were the lenders to the southern planters
themselves. This will require thick archival research that has yet to be undertaken.


It is now well established that a number of existing insurance companies participated significantly in
providing slaveowners with contracts to protect them for financial loss in the event of death or damage
of their human property, particularly their highly skilled property These include New York Life, known as
the Nautilus Insurance Company in the antebellum period, Aetna, Baltimore Life, Southern Mutual
Insurance Company, the Loews Corporation, and AIG.


Lloyd’s of London and RSA Insurance Group the point before the overseas slave trade was declared
illegal, insurance companies routinely protected voyages to procure captive Africans. British insurers
figured prominently, especially Lloyd’s of London and the RSA Insurance Group , in the form of one of its
ancestor business, London Assurance.

….

During the course of approximately 100 white terrorist assaults on black communities from the Civil War
to the 1940s, black lives were taken and black owned property was seized or destroyed by the white
mobsters. Black property owners who lived through the massacres rarely received any form of
compensation, particularly from insurance companies with whom they held policies.


An estimated present value of $611 million dollars of black-owned property was lost during the 1921
Tulsa massacre. What can best be described as a “Negro clause” in the policies gave insurance
companies the basis for denying the massacre victims’ claims. The “…insurance companies fell back on
an exclusionary clause…that…said insurers wouldn’t be held liable for loss ‘caused directly or indirectly
by invasion, insurrection, riot, civil or commotion, or military or usurped power’” (Council 2021).

Author(s): William Darity Jr., the Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, Economics, and Business at Duke University

Publication Date: 7 Dec 2022

Publication Site: House of Representatives, Financial Services Committee

All Men Must Die, But They Don’t Have to Die in Office

Link: https://marypatcampbell.substack.com/p/all-men-must-die-but-they-dont-have?s=w

Graphic:

Excerpt:

What’s interesting about the Senate age distribution is that though we have some difference in the lumpiness, when I look at the average age of the senators by party, they’re basically the same: 64 years old (and some change). On the younger end of the Boomers.

Author(s): Mary Pat Campbell

Publication Date: 29 April 2022

Publication Site: STUMP at substack

8 New Social Security Bills in Congress Now

Link:https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2022/04/21/8-new-social-security-bills-in-congress-now/

Excerpt:

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, pressed House leaders Tuesday to pass the Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust Act, H.R. 5723, which adopts the consumer price Index for the elderly as the basis of the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) and applies the payroll tax to annual wages above $400,000.

“I wish to indicate our strong support for H.R. 5723 – Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust and encourage its prompt floor consideration this Congress,” Jayapal told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Monday in a letter.

The bill, Jayapal wrote, “increases benefits across the board at a time of higher inflation, protects low-income seniors, widows and widowers, ends wait-times for those with disabilities needing support and more. Crucially, it is paid for by making millionaires and billionaires pay the same rate as everyone else by ensuring the payroll tax is applied to wages above $400,000.”

She urged Pelosi to move the bill to a vote in the House “as soon as possible.”

Author(s): Melanie Waddell

Publication Date: 21 April 2022

Publication Site: Think Advisor

The broken federal budget process gets even worse with $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill

Link: https://reason.org/commentary/the-broken-federal-budget-process-gets-even-worse-with-1-5-trillion-omnibus-spending-bill/

Excerpt:

Tardy federal budgets are nothing new in Washington. According to the Tax Policy Center, Congress has only completed the budgetary process in a timely fashion, which requires passing all 12 appropriations bills prior to October 1, four times since fiscal year (FY) 1977. The last time Congress’ budgetary process worked as expected was FY 1997, more than two decades ago.

When the budget does not pass on time, Congress must pass a continuing resolution (CR) to avoid a government shutdown. Since continuing resolutions typically maintain departmental funding at prior-year levels, they do not signal the policy choices ultimately made in the budget process. As a result, federal managers must begin the fiscal year without a clear direction as to whether they should be increasing or decreasing staff and non-employee operational expenditures. If a federal agency or department ultimately receives a significant funding increase or funding cut in the final appropriations bill, managers may have insufficient time to respond efficiently.

While federal budgeting has been broken for some time, the situation in 2022 is especially bad. Over five months into the budgetary year, the House Rules Committee produced a 2,741-page omnibus budget bill in the wee hours of March 9, just hours before the bill’s scheduled vote on the House floor.

Author(s): Marc Joffe

Publication Date: 11 March 2022

Publication Site: Reason

Education & Labor Committee Releases Multiemployer Pension Rescue Tracker

Link:https://edlabor.house.gov/media/press-releases/education-and-labor-committee-releases-multiemployer-pension-rescue-tracker

Graphic:

Excerpt:

Today, the House Committee on Education and Labor unveiled a new Multiemployer Pension Rescue Tracker to highlight the hard-earned pensions saved and businesses protected under Congressional Democrats’ and President Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act.  The multiemployer pension crisis – which was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic – threatened to strip more than a million retirees of the pensions they earned over a lifetime of work, jeopardized tens of thousands of businesses and endangered tens of thousands of jobs.

In response, the American Rescue Plan Act created a Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program to avert the immediate crisis threatening the retirement security of American workers, retirees, and their families.  This solution was supported by a diverse group of stakeholders, including the AFL-CIO, AARP, the United States Chamber of Commerce, UPS and scores of other employers who participate in multiemployer plans.

….

To view the pension tracker, click here.

Author: Education and Labor Committee

Publication Date: 2 Feb 2022

Publication Site: House of Representatives

Geeking Out: House of Representatives Apportionment Visualization 1910-2010

Link: https://marypatcampbell.substack.com/p/geeking-out-house-of-representatives

Graphic:

Excerpt:

So you can see how the dominating states change in the House of Representatives:

in 1910, it was Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York

in 2010, it was New York, California, Texas, and Florida

While New York was a large state throughout this visualization, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois dropped out and California, Texas, and Florida rose up.

Author(s): Mary Pat Campbell

Publication Date: 24 March 2021

Publication Site: STUMP at Substack

Multiemployer pension measures cleared for relief bill vote

Link: https://www.pionline.com/legislation/multiemployer-pension-measures-cleared-relief-bill-vote

Excerpt:

Legislation to help struggling multiemployer pension funds is to remain in the COVID-19 relief measure headed for a Senate vote this week.

The package also calls for some funding relief for single-employer plans, through extended amortization periods and pension interest rate smoothing changes.

The pandemic relief package was approved by the House along party lines Feb. 27. Its pension provisions were at risk of being stripped until the Senate parliamentarian ruled late Monday that they fit the rules for a budget reconciliation process that allows Democrats to prevail under a simple majority.

Author(s): Hazel Bradford

Publication Date: 2 March 2021

Publication Site: Pensions & Investments

GameStop frenzy mastermind Roaring Kitty will testify in Congress on Thursday alongside the Reddit and Robinhood CEOs and two hedge fund managers after amateur traders pushed shares up 1,800% and cost Wall Street $19billion

Link: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9259527/YouTube-streamer-Roaring-Kitty-testify-GameStop-alongside-hedge-fund-managers.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailus

Excerpt:

The YouTube streamer known as Roaring Kitty, who helped drive a surge of interest in GameStop Corp , will testify before a House panel on Thursday alongside top hedge fund managers.

The House Financial Services Committee is examining how a flood of retail trading drove GameStop and other shares to extreme highs, squeezing hedge funds like Melvin Capital that had bet against it.

The witness list was announced on Friday by Representative Maxine Waters and includes Keith Gill, who also goes by Roaring Kitty, Robinhood Chief Executive Vlad Tenev, Citadel CEO Kenneth Griffin, Melvin CEO Gabriel Plotkin and Reddit CEO Steve Huffman.

Author(s): REUTERS and JOSH BOSWELL

Publication Date: 14 February 2021

Publication Site: Daily Mail UK

House Democrats Push Minimum Wage Raise in Covid-19 Relief Bill Despite Senate Concerns

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/house-democrats-to-craft-covid-19-relief-bill-with-minimum-wage-increase-11613168330?mod=djemwhatsnews

Excerpt:

House Democrats are preparing to stitch together a legislative version of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief proposal next week, which will include an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour despite a second Senate Democrat opposing it this week.

House committees spent the past week shaping portions of the legislation, including the proposal to gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $15 over four years. Early next week, the House Budget Committee is expected to assemble all the pieces into one bill, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said should pass the full House by the end of the month.

Author(s): Kristina Peterson and Andrew Restuccia

Publication Date: 12 February 2021

Publication Site: Wall Street Journal