A U.S. representative from Kentucky has put a bill before Congress to amend the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, increasing the exemption from registration threshold for private fund advisors to reflect changes in inflation.
Dubbed the Small Business Investor Capital Access Act, the legislation was introduced last Thursday by U.S. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.).
Under current law, private fund advisors managing less than $150 million in assets are not required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission—a threshold that has remained unchanged since the Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act of 2010 was enacted.
Barr’s bill would adjust the current threshold to reflect inflation that has occurred since July 2010—$207.67 million as of Tuesday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics—and tie the benchmark to the Consumer Price Index going forward.
The bill, H.R. 2758, was introduced quietly Thursday with no co-sponsors and no accompanying summary. It was referred to the Financial Services Committee along with another Barr-sponsored bill, H.R. 2579.
Entitled the Developing and Empowering our Aspiring Leaders Act of 2023, that legislation would revise the definition of a qualified investment for venture capital fund advisors to include secondary acquisitions from qualified portfolio companies and investments in other venture capital funds. It would also amend the definition of a venture capital fund to require qualifying funds be predominantly composed of direct acquisitions from qualified portfolio companies or other venture capital funds.
It was also introduced with no co-sponsors, summary or public announcement.
A member of the House Financial Services Committee, the majority of Barr’s campaign contributions come from the securities and investment industry, according to OpenSecrets.org. His top donors are Apollo Global Management, Alliance Resource Partners and Blackstone Group.
Barr has made no public comments and his office did not respond to media requests.