Scott Highlights Capital Markets Legislation at Punchbowl News Small Business Event
The Ranking Member also discussed his efforts to push back on the current Basel III Endgame proposal, his ROAD to Housing Act, his work to crack down on the illicit fentanyl supply chain, and his priorities for the next Congress.
Washington, D.C. – Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-S.C.) today joined Punchbowl News for an event focused on small business and the economy. During the panel, Ranking Member Scott highlighted his recently released Empowering Main Street in America Act, which would improve access to capital for entrepreneurs across the country, tailor regulations for small and newly public companies looking to grow and expand their operations, and create new avenues for hardworking Americans to invest in their community.
The Ranking Member also discussed his efforts to push back on the current Basel III Endgame proposal, which would limit access to credit for small businesses and hardworking Americans across the country, as well as his comprehensive housing legislation, the ROAD to Housing Act, his work to crack down on the illicit fentanyl supply chain, and his priorities for the next Congress.
Click here or on the image above to watch the panel.
Excerpts from the Ranking Member’s remarks are below:
On the Empowering Main Street in America Act:
“The truth is that when you you listen to this last panelist, they did a really good job of distilling some of the really important business issues. As a kid growing up in poverty, one of the things I always wanted to do was to have a way to have my mom not just have a house but have a garage where she could literally drive into the garage and be safe. And for me, I thought that was either football or business. And when you listen to the last panel, what you conclude with is – capital for businesses is really, really hard to find. When I started my Allstate Insurance franchises, I literally went to the bank with an asset, it was a nine-year-old car, 253,000 miles on it. I was living in an apartment and the banker said…that's not an asset, that's a liability.
“Finding access to capital is so darn hard. And what the Empowering Main Street bill does is it makes it easier for would be entrepreneurs to present their case to their community in such a way that if the community wants to invest in their business, they get a ‘yes.’ If we can find more ways to reduce the hurdles, create more access to capital, have more folks in the same room, they can say, yes, I like your idea. I like your business plan. Let's do it. That's what the bill does.
“And for me, had it not been for someone in the community who who knew me, who believed in me, who trusted me, who decided to write a check, I would not be here today. Because it's that important for all of us to recognize when capital is elusive, communities do not grow and prosper. Communities without small businesses in their communities are the communities that are going to be left behind. And unfortunately, and disproportionately, that's the African-American and Hispanic communities that are consistently left behind, because finding capital is so darn hard. If you're starting a business from the ground up, without the relationships and the influencers in your oikos, in your natural space of influence, you find yourself lagging further and further behind.
“And so Empowering Main Street really is my way of having a vision about bringing more decision makers in the same room so that they can make the same decision, say ‘yes, I like the business plan, yes, I'll invest in the business and yes, we will take that calculated risk to transform lives and communities.’”
On Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler’s burdensome agenda:
“Gensler is not coming. Listen, if I were him, I wouldn't come either. We’ve got a lot of hard questions for him. I think both the left and the right agree on the fact that stifling access to capital, having an SEC that is more burdensome and regulatory driven than is actually achieving the goal of making it easier for folks to have access to capital – that was going to be the direction of my questions tomorrow…And so the other thing that has been troubling with the SEC is their approach to cryptocurrency and digital assets. I know it's still a controversial topic. I know the fact of the matter is that some people don't necessarily believe in the industry, but I believe that if we're going to be the greatest economy on the planet, it requires innovation to happen in America. So, we have to innovate before we regulate to make sure that those new forms of opportunities populate America and Americans first, and then we spread it to the rest of the world. In the area of digital assets, here's a place where Gensler and the SEC finds themselves out of step with the average American.”
On the current Basel III Endgame proposal:
“The question is, are we already safe enough? And the stress test, or the process that banks go through to make sure that they can meet the challenges in the marketplace…the answer is for every stress test I've heard of, every bank or financial institution is prepared to meet that moment...So, if you put even more capital on the sidelines to meet a regulatory standard, that means there are fewer dollars that are less affordable to meet the needs of small businesses. And so, when you think about Basel III, think about it as denying capital and resources to small businesses who desperately not only need the resources, but need to be able to afford those resources. And so, the more capital we see in the marketplace, the more activity we see in the marketplace financially, the cost comes down and the businesses go up, and that's really healthy for our businesses. So, what we're going to do is continue to push back on those legislative priorities and regulatory realities that are being crafted in hopes – and I could be naïve here – the intentions are good – but the misunderstanding of free markets is devastating.”
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