Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Chair, this, again, the underlying piece of legislation is a piece of legislation that is designed to ensure that small businesses have an on-ramp to equity financing into the IPO market. Let's recall again, why are we seeing so few IPOs? Why are we continuing in this 8 percent-plus unemployment environment for over 3 years, the longest period of sustained high unemployment since the Great Depression? Well, I listen closely to businesspeople in the Fifth Congressional District of Texas. I listen to other job creators around America, and here's what I hear.

John Mackey, cofounder and CEO of Whole Foods Market: In some cases regulations have gone too far, and it really makes it difficult for small businesses. There's too much bureaucracy and red tape. Taxes on business are very high. So we're not creating the enabling conditions that allow businesses to get started.

We're trying to cut away red tape with this JOBS Act.

Andrew Puzder, CEO, CKE Restaurants: Government just doesn't understand how much uncertainty it creates in the economy when it attempts to regulate what the private sector does, and it really doesn't understand what the private sector does.

Bernie Marcus, cofounder, former CEO of Home Depot: Having built a small business into a big one, I can tell you that today the impediments that the government imposes are almost impossible to deal with. Home Depot would have never succeeded if we tried to start it today.

Let me repeat that, Madam Chair. Home Depot would never have succeeded if we tried to start it today.

Every day you see rules and regulations from a group of Washington bureaucrats who know nothing about running a business, and I mean every day. It's become stifling.

If you're a small businessman, the only way to deal with it is to work harder, put in more hours, and let people go. When you consider that something like 70 percent of the American people work for small businesses, you are talking about a big economic impact.

Just three voices, Madam Chair, from America's job creators. Again, it's not a real secret why we've had a dearth of IPOs.

I understand the gentlelady's amendment is to have the SEC issue a report, number one. I would also note, since these are public filings, we ourselves, as Members of Congress, will have no trouble whatsoever understanding how many companies will go public in the next year.

I understand the gentlelady's argument, I respect that, but, again, it's just one more reporting burden that, frankly, is being placed on the SEC. Now, we've had a debate, and the ranking member has brought up many times he's unhappy with the level of funding that the SEC has received. In fact, I would note, however, that even the President of the United States in his budget is not trying to give the SEC what they have requested.

But what the ranking member has said: [Page: H1284] Studies are not done for free by the SEC. I think we have got a further burdening of the SEC with more work. Given the current decision to restrict SEC funding, I will be much more careful about burdening them with studies which will inevitably come at the expense of more important duties.

Again it's a debate. Does the SEC have the right amount of resources, too much, too many? I don't know, that's a legitimate debate.

But, apparently, he thought strongly enough that we should not be burdening the SEC with further burdens at this time. For all of those reasons, I would urge that we defeat the amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.