15 U.S.C. § 78qq — Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee

(a) Establishment and purpose (1) This section creates the Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee inside the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The law calls it "the Committee." (2)(A) The Committee gives the SEC advice on rules, regulations, and policies. This advice must relate to the SEC's job of protecting investors, keeping markets fair and efficient, and helping companies raise capital. The advice can cover: how "emerging companies" (privately held small businesses) and "smaller public companies" (public companies worth less than $250,000,000) raise money through securities sales, including private and limited offerings and public offerings; trading in the stock of those companies; and public reporting and corporate governance rules for those companies. (B) The Committee cannot give advice about the SEC's enforcement program — its work of catching and punishing rule-breakers. (b) Membership (1) The Committee's members are: (A) the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation; (B) between 10 and 20 members picked by the SEC. These members must represent: emerging companies making private or limited stock offerings or considering an IPO (including their officers and directors), the professional advisors of those companies (lawyers, accountants, investment bankers, financial advisors), and the investors in those companies (angel investors, venture capital funds, family offices); officers or directors of minority-owned or women-owned small businesses; smaller public companies (including their officers and directors), the professional advisors of those companies (lawyers, auditors, underwriters, financial advisors), and the pre-IPO and post-IPO investors in those companies (both institutions like venture capital funds and individuals like angel investors); and people who take part in the market for these companies' securities, such as stock exchanges, alternative trading systems, analysts, information processors, and transfer agents; and (C) three non-voting members: one picked by the Investor Advocate, one picked by the North American Securities Administrators Association, and one picked by the Administrator of the Small Business Administration. (2) Members appointed under (B), (C)(ii), or (C)(iii) serve four-year terms. (3) Those appointed members are not treated as SEC employees or agents just because they sit on the Committee. (c) Chairman; vice chairman; secretary; assistant secretary (1) The Committee's own members elect, from among themselves, a chairman, a vice chairman, a secretary, and an assistant secretary. (2) Each person elected serves a three-year term in that role. (d) Meetings (1) The Committee must meet at least four times a year, called by its chairman, and also whenever the SEC calls a meeting. (2) The chairman must give members written notice of each meeting at least two weeks ahead of time. (e) Compensation and travel expenses For each member who is not a full-time federal employee: (1) the member can be paid for each day spent doing Committee work, up to the daily rate of a Level V federal executive-schedule position; and (2) the member gets travel expenses, including a daily allowance for meals and lodging, on the same terms the government uses for people it employs occasionally. (f) Staff The SEC must give the Committee whatever staff its chairman decides the Committee needs to carry out this section. (g) Review by Commission The SEC must: (1) review the Committee's findings and recommendations; and (2) each time the Committee sends the SEC a finding or recommendation, promptly issue a public statement that assesses the finding or recommendation and discloses what action, if any, the SEC plans to take on it. (h) Federal Advisory Committee Act A separate law, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, does not apply to this Committee or its activities.