Cantor says JOBS bill set for House passage next week

{mosads}This time around, Cantor told Hoyer that the Jumpstart Our Business Startups act, H.R. 3606, should be approved by the end of the week, and said he hoped the Senate could follow suit.

“I’d hope that Senator Reid would move expeditiously in passing the JOBS act once this House sends it to the Senate at the end of next week,” Cantor said.

Hoyer replied that the bill is made up of several stand-alone bills that have already been approved by the House in easy votes, and new ideas that Democrats can also support.

“I believe our side certainly is going to join in supporting these bills, which we think will have some positive effect on small business, entrepreneurs, business formation, capital formation,” Hoyer said.

The JOBS act is made up of six bills, four of which have passed the House already. These bills are the Access to Capital for Job Creators act (H.R. 2940), the Entrepreneur Access to Capital act (H.R. 2930), the Small Company Capital Formation act (H.R. 1070), and the Private Company Flexibility and Growth act (H.R. 2167).

It also includes H.R. 4088, the Capital Expansion act, which would increase the number of shareholders able to invest in a community bank from 500 to 2,000. And, the bill incorporates the original H.R. 3606, the Reopening American Capital Markets to Emerging Growth Companies act, which aims to lower the costs companies face when they go public.

Hoyer on Thursday also asked Cantor when Republicans might put forward a new federal highway bill, since Cantor indicated this bill would not be taken up next week. But Cantor said only that work is ongoing, and that Republicans were aware that federal highway authorization expires at the end of March.

Hoyer also asked a similar question on re-authorization for the Export-Import Bank, and Cantor made a similar reply indicating that Republicans are aware that that the Bank’s lending cap will be hit at the end of March.

Finally, Hoyer asked about the House budget resolution, and Cantor said Republicans are looking to get a budget on the floor “hopefully by the end of this month.”

— This story was updated at 2:10 p.m. to correct that Cantor apparently noted now calm the colloquy was, not Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.).