What You Need to Know
- Bill would provide $10M in grants annually to state regulators to support investigating and prosecuting financial fraud against older investors.
- The vote on the House floor will take place Tuesday, according to a top state regulator.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission will be the program administrator.
The full House is scheduled to vote Tuesday on H.R. 5914, the Empowering States to Protect Seniors from Bad Actors Act, bipartisan legislation to create a grant program, implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission, that would work closely with state securities regulators to protect older investors.
The bill, introduced on Jan. 22 by Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Tim Scott, R-S.C., Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., “will provide $10 million in grants annually to state regulators to support the investigation and prosecution of senior financial fraud cases, invest in technology and training, and conduct outreach to older Americans and increase their awareness of scams,” the senators said.
Melanie Senter Lubin, Maryland securities commissioner and president of the North American Securities Administrators Association told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday in a letter that passage of the bill would “place the interests of investors front-and-center and take steps to prevent the exploitation of older investors.”