Fiscal and Economic

H.R. 1219 – Supporting America's Innovators Act: YES. Venture capital firms loan money to start-up companies. Since the adoption of Dodd-Frank, heavy government regulation has severely reduced the amount of capital loaned by these firms. Although the JOBS Act of 2012 eased the regulatory burdens on small capital venture firms, its provisions did not apply to coordinated investment pools of more than 100 investors. This bill simply raises that cap to 250, on funds with less than $10 million of capitalization.

H.R. 1304 – Self Insurance Protection Act: YES. Some employers set up their own employee health care fund, and will often buy stop-loss insurance that picks up costs above a certain amount, thus protecting the employer from catastrophic losses and assuring employees' expenses are covered. Some states are attempting to regulate these stop loss agreements as health insurance, driving them out of the market. This bill makes clear that these contracts are financial instruments and not to be regulated as if they were end-user health insurance.

Continuing Resolution to Fund the Government: Yes. Hopefully, this is the last continuing resolution that we will see. Like those before it, it spends too much, abandons Congress’ fundamental responsibility to superintend the nation’s finances, and circumvents the normal budget process. But it also gets us out of the debt, doubt and despair of the Obama administration into the prosperity, hope and promise of the Trump era.

Senate Amendment to HR 5325 – Fiscal Year 2017 Continuing Resolution: YES. This bill avoids a government shutdown on October 1st by extending current spending authority through December 9th. This is the WORST way to fund the government, because it fails to exercise congressional oversight through the budget and appropriations bills. Unfortunately, sincere but poorly reasoned opposition from the “Freedom Caucus” blocked adoption of the budget this year and doomed legislative efforts to exercise that oversight.