Press Releases

Yesterday, during a Financial Services Committee hearing, Congressman Bill Huizenga (MI-02) questioned the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairwoman Mary Jo White. During the exchange, Huizenga peppered the new agency head over the regulatory hurdles put in place by the SEC that make it more difficult for employers large and small to grow, expand, and create jobs. At the end of his questioning, Congressman Huizenga also asked the SEC Chair to evaluate her agencies budgetary expenditures by raising the point that over 85% of her employees make $100,000 or more annually.

Huizenga Discusses H.R. 1135, His Legislation To Reform Dodd-Frank and Remove Burdensome Regulations That Serve No Benefit To Investors and Cost Employers Both Time and Capital: 

• Huizenga: Neither one of us were around this institution when Dodd-Frank came into effect, but we're both dealing with the echo effects of it and I want to explore that a little bit. I've got to tell you I was thrilled earlier, I think in one of your responses to my colleague, Mr. Neugebauer from Texas. You said, I believe the quote was, it's one of your highest priorities to simplify reporting requirements. Well, we've got one of those solutions for you, all right? It's called HR-1135. Myself and my colleague Mr. Garrett from New Jersey. It's dealing with the pay ratio, and section 953 of Dodd-Frank has been labeled by some a logistical nightmare because of all the different factors that are having to be put in place to consider calculating total compensation. And I'm curious, there's a lot of questions out there, you know, would transit benefits or employee-paid health care cost be a component of compensation. Should domestic and multinational employees be a part of the calculation? What about part-time employees or independent contractors? It seems to me it's a vague statue. If you would agree or disagree with that. And what factors do you believe must be considered to issue and determining this calculation. Have you looked at that at all?

• White: I have looked at that, and again, there are, you know, others who feel very strongly that that needs to be done as quickly as possible. The complication with that is in the definition of total compensation, under specific definition of that which applies when you're disclosing your top executives' compensation. That is the statutory definition leads to all the others issues you've just, you know, keyed up in terms of some of those complexities.

• Huizenga: I guess ultimately my question is, to what end? To what good? And that, you know, when Center on Executive Compensation did a survey, they believe that's an estimate of three months, in some cases longer, to calculate and gather all these pay ratios. I'd love to know whether the commission staff has taken any effort to identify the cost to business for this when there is, in my view of it, absolutely no benefit to the health and well-being and safety and soundness of either a corporation or the investors of it. It seems to me it's trying to turn it into a political football, And I'm curious and we can -- would love to submit these as well, get maybe a further, more full answer from you. But it seems to me we need to find out from you whether you believe that it's worthwhile, the significant amounts of time and money that are going to be spent on developing it.

• White: Very quickly. I mean, it's a mandated rule-making for us, so as a regulator --

• Huizenga: Well, 1135 will take care of that, and we'll alleviate you of that burden.


Huizenga Previews New Legislation To Reform The Merger and Acquisitions Regulatory Process In Order To Boost Small Business Growth, Expansion and Job Creation:

• Huizenga: We're working on some draft legislation regarding mergers and acquisitions, and earlier you were talking about small businesses and trying to focus and concentrate on that. Our proposal is to right-size federal regulation of MNA intermediaries and business brokers, and it's been one of the top recommendations for the government-industry forum on small business capital formation which the SEC annually holds. It's been a recommendation in 2005, '06, '07, '08, '09, '10 and '11. Do you see that this is an important small business capital formation concern, and under your leadership what priority are you going to be giving to these small business issues?

• White: You know, I certainly appreciate the concerns of that issue and I will give a very high priority to small business issues during my tenure.

• Huizenga: OK, just to clarify right now, presently broker-dealer registration is a one-size-fits-all approach and 90 percent of the requirements are totally irrelevant to a broker-dealer engaging in a limited capital-raising activities. And this could be something as small as selling an LLC because it has membership shares and those kinds of things.

• White: I will commit to reviewing that specifically.


Huizenga Questions SEC Fiscal Responsibility, Points Out That Over 85% Of SEC Employees Make Over $100,000:

Huizenga: We're talking budgets. According to my calculations, about $550 million of your budget goes to folks that make a hundred thousand dollars or more on your staff. And I understand a hundred thousand dollars in Washington, D.C., isn't it same as in Zeeland, Michigan. But you've got 85.75% of your employees making a hundred thousand dollars or more. I'd like you to review that as well.