September 24, 2024
The senator also spoke about his efforts to oppose the current Basel III endgame proposal, the Pathways to Housing Act, efforts to crack down on the illicit fentanyl supply chain, and his priorities for the next Congress.
WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Tim Scott (R.S.C.) today participated in a Punchbowl News event focused on small business and the economy. During the panel, Senator Scott highlighted his recently announced Strengthening America’s Main Street Act, which would improve access to capital for entrepreneurs across the country, align regulations for small businesses and newly public companies looking to grow and expand their businesses, and create new avenues for hard-working Americans to invest in their communities.
The Senator also spoke about his efforts to oppose the current Basel III endgame proposal, which would restrict access to credit for small businesses and hardworking Americans across the country, his comprehensive housing bill, the ROAD to Housing Act, efforts to crack down on the illicit fentanyl supply chain, and his priorities for the next Congress.
To watch the panel, click here or on the image above.
Excerpts from the Senators’ remarks are below:
About the Strengthen America’s Main Street Act:
“In fact, listening to this last panel, they really did a good job of distilling some of the key business issues. As a kid growing up in poverty, one of the things I always wanted was to not only give my mother a home, but literally give her a garage where she could put her car in the garage and be safe. For me, I thought it was either football or business. And listening to the last panel, I come to the conclusion that finding capital for a business is really hard. When I started my Allstate Insurance franchise, I literally went to the bank with an asset. It was a nine-year-old car with 253,000 miles on it. I was living in an apartment, and the banker…said that’s a liability, not an asset.
“Access to capital is really hard to find, and the Strengthen Main Street Act makes it easier for aspiring entrepreneurs to present their case to the community so that the community can say ‘yes’ when they want to invest in their business. If we can find ways to lower the hurdles, increase access to capital, and get more people in the same room so they can say ‘Yes, we like your idea. We like your business plan. Let’s go for it.’ That’s what the bill is about.”
“And for me, I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for someone in my community that knew me and believed in me and trusted me and decided to write me a check. Because it’s so important for us all to recognize that communities don’t grow and thrive when capital is elusive. Communities that don’t have small businesses within their communities are communities that get left behind. And unfortunately, and disproportionately, it’s African-American and Hispanic communities that always get left behind because capital is so hard to find. If you try to start a business from scratch, without relationships and influencers in your oikos, within your natural sphere of influence, you’re going to fall further and further behind.
“And Main Street Empowerment is how I fulfill that vision of getting more decision makers in the same room, making the same decisions and saying, ‘Yes, I like the business plan. Yes, we’re going to invest in the business. Yes, we’re going to take a calculated risk and change people’s lives and our communities.'”
On Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler’s burdensome agenda:
“Gensler is not coming. If I were him, I wouldn’t come either. He has a lot of tough questions. I think both left and right agree that having a more burdensome and regulatory-driven SEC than actually accomplishing the goal of stifling access to capital and making it easier for people to access capital is a fact that was supposed to be the direction of my questions tomorrow. And another thing that the SEC has an issue with is their approach to cryptocurrencies and digital assets. I know this is still a controversial topic. The fact is, I know some people don’t necessarily believe in this industry, but I believe that in order for us to be the greatest economy on earth, innovation needs to happen in America. So we need to innovate before we regulate, and new forms of opportunity need to spread to America and Americans first, and then spread it to the world. In the area of digital assets, Gensler and the SEC are out of step with the average American.”
Regarding the current Basel III endgame proposal:
“The question is, are we safe enough already? And the stress tests, the process that we go through to make sure that banks are able to meet market challenges…the answer is that in every stress test that I’ve heard, every bank and financial institution is ready to meet that moment…So putting more capital into meeting regulatory standards means fewer dollars that are out of reach to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. So when you think about Basel III, think of it as denying capital and resources to small and medium-sized businesses that not only desperately need resources, but also need to be able to afford those resources. So the more capital you see in the market, the more financial activity there is in the market, the lower your costs are, the more your business grows. That’s very healthy for our business. So what we’re trying to do is continue to push back against legislative priorities and regulatory realities. The intentions are good, but it’s a devastating misunderstanding of the free market. And maybe I’m naive here.”
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