Yesterday the Senate held a hearing on drones, to discuss whether privacy laws can handle a sudden proliferation of cheap, lightweight aircraft perfectly designed for unlawful surveillance. Can the cops now hover over your carefully hidden pot crop? Can the sex offender down the street now peek into your second-story window? How are corporations Read More
Ready your startups, the early stage investing climate is about to go into overdrive. This afternoon, the JOBS Act (or Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act) passed in the House with an overwhelming vote of 380-41. Next, the bill moves to President Obama, who is expected to sign it into law.
It’s been a bit of a bumpy ride. The JOBS Act originally passed in the House a few weeks ago with a 390-23 vote a couple weeks ago. The Senate’s version of the bill, called the CROWDFUND Act (or Capital Raising Online While Deterring Fraud and Unethical Non-Disclosure Act), added a number of safeguards for investors and passed last week 73-26. The JOBS Act was then revised to reconcile with the Senate’s bill, which is why the final version had to move back to the House for another vote. Read More
Update: On March 27th, the House passed a reconciled version of the JOBS Act, which includes the provisions from the Senate’s CROWDFUND Act, detailed below.
This afternoon, the Senate passed the Crowdfund Act by a resounding 73-26 vote. If you’ve been following the JOBS Act, which has won support from venture capitalists and founders alike (for evidence, just scroll down to this petition’s list of supporters), the Crowdfund Act is the Senate’s version of the JOBS bill, which now includes the requirement that startups looking to raise capital do so from SEC-approved websites.
The JOBS Act, short for Jumpstart Our Business Startups, centered around rolling back some investor protections in the name of making it easier for small businesses to raise capital.
Although the JOBS bill passed in the House in a 390-23 vote a couple weeks ago, because legislators were successful in amending a number of “more stringent safeguards for investors,” the Crowdfunding Act will need to be reconciled with the JOBS Act and head back to the House, rather than to President Obama for approval, reports Politico. Read More
