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Today, Congressman Huizenga (MI-02) released the following statement after the House passed H.R. 37, the Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act, by a vote of 271-154. This bipartisan bill includes 11 different job creating provisions including Congressman Huizenga’s mergers & acquisitions legislation that streamlines and simplifies regulations for small business owners in West Michigan and across the nation. This legislative initiative originated after a meeting with a West Michigan constituent who identified a problem. This is the first legislation to pass the House from a member of the Michigan Delegation during the 114th Congress.

Prior to the vote, Congressman Huizenga spoke on the House floor in support of H.R. 37. Click the picture below to watch Congressman Huizenga’s remarks on the House floor.








Rep Huizenga:

Excessive and unnecessary regulations have been hurting our economy, increasing cost to consumers and investors, reducing wage growth, and restricting access to private sector capital that our nation's job creators need in order to grow the economy and create jobs. This unanimously passed bipartisan legislation is a compilation of commonsense regulatory relief bills that have been carefully crafted to help grow the economy for Main Street and not from Washington D.C.

11 of these bills have previously been passed by this very body or the Financial Services Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support. In fact, my bill idea came not from anybody on Wall Street, not from anybody in Washington, D.C., but from a mergers and acquisitions lawyer back in my district - back in Grand Rapids, Michigan - who said, we've been struggling with this problem and we need some help because we cannot get the SEC to move on this. So that's why I have put together the Small Business Mergers and Acquisition Sales and Brokerage Simplification Act and that has been kindly rolled into this larger package.

It has been estimated that approximately $10 trillion of privately owned small family-owned type businesses will be sold or, worse yet, closed in the coming years as baby boomers retire. I don’t think any of us would think that's a good thing. Merger and acquisition brokers play a critical role in facilitating the transfer of ownership of these smaller, privately held companies. Who benefits? The workers that these small businesses employ and the surrounding communities.

This bipartisan provision would create a simplified system for brokers performing services in connection with the transfer of ownership of these smaller, privately held companies. In today's highly charged political environment, however, it's hard. It would be nice to show the American people that we have positive, effective initiatives that should be passed. Thank you and I yield back the balance of my time.