Pryor clause in small-banks bill

WASHINGTON — A bill designed to promote investment that passed in the Senate on Thursday contained a provision co-authored by Arkansas’ U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor that aims to help small banks raise capital.

The Jump-starting Our Business Start-ups Act would relax rules on raising investment funds. For instance, it would allow the use of social media to advertise investment opportunities and allow companies to issue securities of up to $1 million without registering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Pryor’s contribution to the bill, co-authored by Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, increases the shareholder threshold for SEC registration for banks to 2,000, from the current level of 500.

Pryor, a Democrat from Little Rock, and Hutchison argued that the lower threshold kept smaller banks from expanding out of fear that reporting to the regulator would result in additional compliance costs.

“Community banks are the backbone of economic growth in many small towns, and we need them to keep growing and lending in their communities,” Pryor said. “Updating these threshold numbers removes a major roadblock to their growth.”

The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday passed a “regulatory freeze” introduced by U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, a Little Rock Republican.

“President Obama’s policies are making things worse, and job creators need a break from his aggressive regulatory agenda,” Griffin said.

Griffin’s bill would put a halt on all new “significant” federal regulations until the nation’s unemployment rate drops to 6 percent or lower.

The bill defines rules as “significant” if, among other things, they have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more.

The legislation makes an exception for rules necessary for national security, trade agreements, criminal law enforcement and imminent threats to health or safety.

Arkansas’ U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, a Jonesboro Republican and member of the House Agriculture Committee, will host a Friday hearing on the2012 Farm Bill on the Arkansas State University campus.

The hearing is one of four field hearings planned on the legislation.

Crawford said the hearing “will be Arkansas’ opportunity to make sure that the new Farm Bill protects our rural communities and ensures the viability of Southern agriculture.”

The hearing, which is open to the public, will be held in the Fowler Center at ASU at 201 Olympic Drive in Jonesboro beginning at 9 a.m.

On Friday, the National Association of Community Health Centers gave U.S. Sen. John Boozman its 2012 Distinguished Community Health Champion Award.

The group called Boozman, a Rogers Republican, a “valued leader in efforts to make health centers the solution to improving access to primary and preventative health in underserved communities.”