The bill
Small Entity Update Act
HR. 3382, 119th Congress — read as touching Investment Banking & Securities.
Sponsored by
Rep. Wagner, Ann [R-MO-2]
ID: W000812
Follow the money
The bill
HR. 3382, 119th Congress — read as touching Investment Banking & Securities.
The sponsor
Every bill has someone who introduced it. That name is where the paper trail starts.
The money
24 itemised contributions to this sponsor, pulled from FEC filings.
The alignment
This bill's text tracks the "Trade" section, p. 863-865 of the Mandate for Leadership.
Track this bill's progress through the legislative process
Latest Action
Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
July 21, 2025
📍 Current Status
Next: Both chambers must agree on the same version of the bill.
1. Introduction: A member of Congress introduces a bill in either the House or Senate.
2. Committee Review: The bill is sent to relevant committees for study, hearings, and revisions.
3. Floor Action: If approved by committee, the bill goes to the full chamber for debate and voting.
4. Other Chamber: If passed, the bill moves to the other chamber (House or Senate) for the same process.
5. Conference: If both chambers pass different versions, a conference committee reconciles the differences.
6. Presidential Action: The President can sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action.
7. Became Law: If signed (or if Congress overrides a veto), the bill becomes law!
(sigh) Oh joy, another exercise in legislative theater. Let's dissect this farce, shall we?
The "Small Entity Update Act" (HR 3382). How quaint. A bill that promises to update the definition of a "small entity" under securities laws. Because, you know, the current definition is just so... outdated. (eyeroll)
In reality, this bill is a masterclass in bureaucratic doublespeak and regulatory capture. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will conduct studies, submit reports, and revise rules to ensure that the definition of "small entity" aligns with the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Wow, I can barely contain my excitement.
New regulations being created or modified? Oh, just a few minor tweaks to the existing regulatory framework. The SEC will get to redefine what constitutes a "small entity," which will undoubtedly lead to more complexity and confusion for businesses trying to navigate the already Byzantine securities laws.
Affected industries and sectors? Well, that's anyone who dares to operate in the financial markets, including small businesses, startups, and even some larger corporations. Because, you know, the SEC needs to "protect" them from themselves by imposing more regulations.
Compliance requirements and timelines? Ah, just a few minor hurdles to jump through. The SEC will require entities to comply with new rules within a year or two of enactment, depending on the specific provisions. And if they don't? Well, that's where the fun begins...
Enforcement mechanisms and penalties? Oh boy, this is where things get really interesting. The bill doesn't explicitly outline any new enforcement mechanisms or penalties, but rest assured, the SEC will find ways to "encourage" compliance through fines, lawsuits, and other forms of regulatory harassment.
Economic and operational impacts? (chuckle) Let's just say that this bill will create a whole new industry of compliance consultants, lawyers, and lobbyists who will feed off the uncertainty and complexity created by these new regulations. The actual economic impact on small businesses and startups? Who cares? They're just collateral damage in the grand game of regulatory capture.
Diagnosis: This bill is suffering from a severe case of "Regulatory-itis," a disease characterized by an excessive growth of bureaucratic red tape, fueled by the insatiable appetite for power and control. The symptoms include increased complexity, decreased transparency, and a complete disregard for the economic well-being of small businesses and startups.
Treatment: (shrugs) None needed. This bill will likely pass with flying colors, and the regulatory cancer will continue to metastasize, suffocating innovation and entrepreneurship in the process.
Rep. Wagner, Ann [R-MO-2]
Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle
No PAC contributions found
No committee contributions found
This bill has 7 cosponsors. Below are their top campaign contributors.
ID: T000486
Top Contributors
10
ID: C001117
Top Contributors
10
ID: S001157
Top Contributors
10
ID: S000250
Top Contributors
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ID: H001047
Top Contributors
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ID: V000138
Top Contributors
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ID: L000599
Top Contributors
10
Hub layout: Politicians in center, donors arranged by type in rings around them.
Showing 63 nodes and 39 connections (51 secondary connections hidden)
Total contributions: $286,198
Showing top 22 donors by contribution amount
Which industries are materially affected by specific provisions in this bill. 3 helped.
Section 2(b) requires the Securities and Exchange Commission to study and report on the definition of 'small entity', which could lead to expanded coverage and reduced regulatory burdens for small investment banking firms, as noted in section 2(b)(2)(B)(ii)
Section 2(b) requires the Securities and Exchange Commission to study and report on the definition of 'small entity', which could lead to expanded coverage and reduced regulatory burdens for small private equity and hedge funds, as noted in section 2(b)(2)(B)(ii)
Section 2(b) requires the Securities and Exchange Commission to study and report on the definition of 'small entity', which could lead to expanded coverage and reduced regulatory burdens for small commercial banks, as noted in section 2(b)(2)(B)(ii)
For each industry this bill affects, here's what the sponsor (Rep. Wagner, Ann [R-MO-2])received from donors associated with that industry during the 2022–present cycles. Donations are not proof of intent — they are a record of who funds the people writing the law.
This bill shows semantic similarity to the following sections of the Project 2025 policy document.AI-enhanced analysis provides detailed alignment ratings.
AI Analysis:
"HR 3382 aligns with Project 2025's goal of reducing regulatory burdens on smaller firms by updating the 'small entity' definition to reflect economic realities and streamline compliance, supporting entrepreneurial capital formation and scaled disclosure requirements."
— 830 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise l Three basic categories of firm: private firms, an intermediate category of smaller firms,4 and public firms; l Reasonable, scaled disclosure requirements; and l Specified secondary markets for the securities of these firms.5 The SEC needs to be reformed to achieve its important core functions more effectively, to improve transparency and due process, and to reduce unnecessary regulatory impediments to capital formation.6 Under current law, the SEC Chair- man has the authority to make almost all of the necessary changes.7 Unfortunately, financial regulators, particularly the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), are poorly managed and organized. With regulatory authority delegated by the government, both the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and FINRA have proved to be ineffective, costly, opaque, and largely impervious to reform. To reduce costs and improve transparency, due process, congressional oversight, and responsiveness, PCAOB and FINRA should be abolished, and their regulatory functions should be merged into the SEC. Furthermore, Congress should establish an indepen- dent board or commission and charge it with producing a detailed report within 18 months that examines the degree to which the regulatory functions of the var- ious other so-called self-regulatory organizations (SROs), which are no longer self-regulatory in any meaningful sense, should be moved to the SEC.8 Discrimination based on immutable characteristics has no place in financial regulation. Offices at financial regulators that promote racist policies (usually in the name of “diversity, equity, and inclusion”) should be abolished, and regulations that require appointments on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex, or sexual orientation should be eliminated. Equal protection of the law, equal opportunity, and individ- ual merit should govern regulatory decisions.9 Congress has given the SEC broad “general exemptive authority,”10 but the SEC has used this authority only rarely. It should use this authority significantly more often to reduce the regulatory burden on issuers, particularly smaller entrepreneurs. ENTREPRENEURIAL CAPITAL FORMATION Financial regulators should remove regulatory impediments to entrepreneur- ial capital formation.11 In the absence of the fundamental reform outlined above, the SEC should: l Simplify and streamline Regulation A (the small issues exemption)12 and Regulation CF (crowdfunding)13 and preempt blue sky registration and quali- fication requirements for all primary and secondary Regulation A offerings.14
AI Analysis:
"HR 3382 seeks to modernize the SEC's 'small entity' definition and adjust it for inflation, directly aiming to reduce regulatory burdens on small businesses and improve regulatory efficiency—goals that align with Project 2025's call for the SEC to reduce impediments to capital formation and simplify securities regulations."
— 827 — Section 5: Independent Regulatory Agencies with government.” Under the Biden FTC, he writes, firms try “to get out of anti- trust liability by offering climate, diversity, or other forms of ESG-type offerings.” Candeub says that state AGs “are far more responsive to their constituents” than the federal government generally is, and he recommends that the FTC establish a position in the chairman’s office that is “focused on state AG cooperation and inviting state AGs to Washington, DC, to discuss enforcement policy in key sectors under the FTC’s jurisdiction: Big Tech, hospital mergers, supermarket mergers, and so forth.” — 829 — 27 FINANCIAL REGULATORY AGENCIES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION AND RELATED AGENCIES David R. Burton The primary purposes of the laws and regulations governing capital markets and of capital market regulators are to deter and punish fraud and other material misstatements to investors; foster reasonable, scaled disclosure of information that is material to investors’ financial outcomes and proxy voting decisions; and maintain fair, orderly, and efficient secondary capital markets. The Securities Act of 19331 and the Securities Exchange Act of 19342 reflect nearly nine decades of rushed and haphazard amendments. The securities laws are now extremely complex and do not constitute a coherent, rational regulatory regime. For example, the current SEC has proposed a climate change reporting rule that would quadruple the costs of being a public company.3 This would have a substantial adverse impact on existing companies. Over time, it would also sub- stantially reduce the number of public companies and therefore the number of investing options available to ordinary Americans. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should be reducing impediments to capital formation, not rad- ically increasing them. The SEC and Congress should fundamentally reform the securities laws gov- erning issuers, broker–dealers, exchanges, and other market participants. Among other things, they should establish a simplified and rationalized securities disclo- sure system with:
AI Analysis:
"HR 3382 aligns with Project 2025's goal of reducing regulatory burdens on small entities by updating the 'small entity' definition to reflect economic conditions and expanding eligibility, which supports broader access to capital markets and regulatory relief for small businesses—consistent with Project 2025's emphasis on easing securities regulations for smaller participants."
— 831 — Financial Regulatory Agencies l Either democratize access to private offerings by broadening the definition of accredited investor for purposes of Regulation D or eliminate the accredited investor restriction altogether.15 l Allow traditional self-certification of accredited investor status for all Regulation D Rule 506 offerings. l Exempt small micro-offerings from registration requirements.16 l Exempt small and intermittent finders from broker–dealer registration requirements and provide a simplified registration process for private placement brokers.17 l Exempt peer-to-peer lending from federal and state securities laws and reduce the regulatory burden on Regulation CF debt securities. l Make the Title I Emerging Growth Company (EGC) exemptions permanent for all EGCs. l Reduce the regulatory burden on small broker–dealers and exempt privately held, non-custodial broker–dealers from the requirements to use a PCAOB- registered firm for their audits. Congress should: l Amend the Internal Revenue Code to disregard crowdfunding and Regulation A shareholders for purposes of the 100-shareholder limit for Subchapter S corporations.18 BETTER CAPITAL MARKETS To improve capital markets, the SEC should: l Preempt blue sky registration, qualification, and continuing reporting requirements for securities traded on established securities markets (including a national securities exchange or an alternative trading system).19 l Terminate the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) program.20 l Abolish Rule 144 and other regulations that restrict securities resales and instead require a company that has sold securities to provide sufficient current informa- tion to the market to permit reasonable investment decisions and secondary sales. — 832 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise Congress should: l Prohibit the SEC from requiring issuer disclosure of social, ideological, political, or “human capital” information that is not material to investors’ financial, economic, or pecuniary risks or returns. The proposed SEC climate change rule, which would quadruple the costs of being a public company, is particularly problematic.21 l Repeal the Dodd–Frank mandated disclosures relating to conflict minerals, mine safety, resource extraction, and CEO pay ratios.22 l Oppose efforts to redefine the purpose of business in the name of social justice; corporate social responsibility (CSR); stakeholder theory; environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria; socially responsible investing (SRI); sustainability; diversity; business ethics; or common- good capitalism. l Prohibit securities regulators, including SROs, from promulgating rules or taking other actions that discriminate, either favorably or unfavorably, on the basis of the race, color, religion, sex, or national origin of such individual or group. SEC ADMINISTRATION To enable it to achieve its core mission more effectively, the SEC should:23 l Publish better data on securities offerings, securities markets, and securities law enforcement and publish an annual data book of time series data on these matters. Specifically, the SEC Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) needs to do a much better job of collecting and reporting fundamental data regarding offerings, regulatory costs, violations, enforcement, investors, state regulator taxes, fees and activities, and other matters. l Ensure that SEC resources flow toward its core functions and away from ancillary and support functions or from missions that do not fall within the SEC’s statutory charge. l Ensure that any three SEC Commissioners are empowered to place an item on the agenda and to receive adequate staff support to do so even without the Chairman’s support.
Showing 3 of 5 policy matches
Policy matches are calculated using a hybrid approach: initial candidates are found using semantic similarity between bill summaries and Project 2025 policy text, then an AI model (Llama 3.1 70B) provides detailed alignment ratings and analysis. Ratings range from 1 (minimal alignment) to 5 (very strong alignment). This analysis does not imply direct causation or intent.