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Washington, DC - The House Financial Services Committee today reported out three measures aimed at enabling emergency services for manufactured housing, expanding consumer protection and to enhance competitiveness of U.S. Markets and reverse exodus of U.S. IPO's.
H.R. 2787, CJ's Home Protection Act: Introduced by Rep. Brad Ellsworth, this bill would change the Federal manufactured home construction and safety standards to require every manufactured home delivered for sale to be supplied with a weather radio. The bill is named after CJ Martin, a two-year-old boy, whose life was taken by an F3 tornado in southwest Indiana in 2005. His mother, Kathryn, turned her grief into a state-wide advocacy campaign that resulted in an Indiana law requiring NOAA Weather Radios be installed in mobile and manufactured housing. Modeled on the Indiana law, CJ's Home Protection Act would change the Federal manufactured home construction and safety standards to require every manufactured home delivered for sale to be supplied with a weather radio.
H.R. 3526: The Financial Services Committee unanimously passed this bill to ensure that regulators are doing everything in their jurisdiction to protect consumers by giving each of the federal banking regulators the authority to write rules against unfair and deceptive financial practices under the Federal Trade Commission Act. In the past, Chairman Barney Frank has been critical of the Federal Reserve for failing to implement regulations to protect consumers--despite having clear authority to do so since the 1970s.
Specifically, the bill changes existing FTC Act rule promulgation authority. Instead of the Federal Reserve, the OTS and the NCUA, each “federal banking agency” and the NCUA will have the FTC Act authority and mandate to write rules to identify and prevent unfair and deceptive practices “with respect to depository institutions” they oversee. The bill does not expand the scope of the authority, and does not change the authority of the FTC.
H.R. 2868, To Enhance Competitiveness of U.S. Markets and Reverse Exodus of U.S. IPO's: Authored by Reps. Meeks and Fossella, this legislation will enhance the competitiveness of U.S. capital markets by allowing exchanges to establish developmental tiers to expand listing opportunities in the United States for smaller companies passed the House Financial Services Committee today by voice vote. The bill would remove the barrier to creating developmental listing tiers on several of the major exchanges in the U.S. by amending Section 18 of the National Securities Markets Improvement Act (NSMIA).
Under the bill, all securities listed on a developmental tier would be subject to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) oversight and state blue-sky regulations in an effort to uphold investor protections.
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