Policy & Regulatory Updates

Last Wednesday, the House Rules Committee posted the text of H.R. 2799, the Expanding Access to Capital Act of 2024. The action by the Rules Committee marks the first step in a parliamentary [...]

Importantly, notwithstanding the remote but not unprecedented possibility of a final DOL rule being repealed via the Congressional Review Act, it is unlikely that Congress will directly impact [...]

"The conversation about the accredited investor definition and the conversation about the growth of private markets and about the decline in the number of publicly listed companies and IPOs have [...]

"On July 27, the HFSC ended its divisive "ESG month" with a predictably contentious markup that advanced partisan bills targeting the Biden Administration’s recent policies on ESG. As we [...]

"The themes that dominated the hearing were (1) the pace of SEC rulemaking; (2) cryptocurrency policy and cryptocurrency fraud; and (3) ESG.  Other topics receiving significant attention included [...]

"As Congress enters its last two weeks of legislative work prior to the August recess, a key question is whether Republicans will be able to capitalize on the ruling as a way to overcome [...]

"All of this is difficult to square with the fiduciary duties RIAs owe their clients. Remember, the “fiduciary duty” standard applicable to RIAs is intended to set them apart from their [...]

In their June 28 letter "House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY), Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry (R-NC) excoriate Gensler [...]

"On December 29, 2022, Congress enacted the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, attaching House Report 117-3932. In the House Report, the Committee on Appropriations expressed concerns about [...]

"The LXR Group announced today that attorney and veteran public policy advocate Bonnie Johnston will join the firm as Senior Policy Counsel.  Ms. Johnston will focus on federal legislative and [...]

"The hearing also marked, in LXR’s opinion, the nadir of Congress’s relationship with the Commission in the modern era and, likely, an inflection point in the new House GOP majority’s treatment [...]

On Thursday, June 15, HFSC Chair Patrick McHenry (R-NC) took the remarkable step of announcing consecutive oversight hearings of the SEC for next week. "The`hearings, which were not on the [...]

"From a position of relative weakness, Waters managed a feat that – at least to our already Godfather addled brains – recalled the strategy if not the techniques that Michael Corleone used to [...]

"In what we view as the most important and consequential exchange of the day, Gary Gensler badly mishandled opening questions from the HFSC Chair about whether the cryptocurrency Ether is a [...]

"House Republicans devoted the overwhelming majority of their time to criticizing the SEC’s decision to pursue a climate disclosure rule, drowning out all other issues. Whereas Gensler’s [...]

"One emerging vector of Democratic criticism is a 2018 law that weakened oversight of many regional banks. On Monday, for example, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) called for a hearing to [...]

"At its March 2 meeting, the Investor Advisory Committee (IAC) held a spirited and revealing discussion surrounding the adequacy of the SEC’s present examination program as it relates to SEC [...]

"In a perhaps inevitable corollary to his self-conscious emphasis on bipartisanship, in his opening statement and throughout the markup, Rep. McHenry made clear in words and his conduct that he [...]

"Tuesday’s hearing was certainly a sign that SBC Chair Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is intent on enacting crypto legislation. In his opening statement, the senator made clear that he has a vision for [...]