{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://downing.house.gov/media/press-releases/downing-bill-expand-access-capital-rural-small-businesses-included-invest-act", "Downing  Bill to Expand Access to Capital for Rural Small Businesses Included in INVEST Act", "2025-12-11", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "MT", "Troy Downing", "D000634", "downing.house.gov", "downing", "https://downing.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Today, Congressman Troy Downing (MT-02) released a statement following the passage of H.R. 3383, the Increasing Investor Opportunities Act (INVEST Act), which includes his Expanding Access to Capital for Rural Job Creators Act.\n\n\u201cRural small businesses are the backbone of Central and Eastern Montana,\u201d said Congressman Downing. \u201cBy including my Expanding Access to Capital for Rural Job Creators Act, the INVEST Act directs the SEC\u2019s Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation to finally give rural Main Street the attention and support it deserves. I\u2019m proud to have championed this legislation, and I look forward to seeing it signed into law.\u201d\n\nRead more about Congressman Downing\u2019s Expanding Access to Capital for Rural Job Creators Act:\n\nThe SEC\u2019s Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation is required to identify problems that small businesses face when securing access to capital and submit an annual report to Congress.\n\nCurrently, the Office\u2019s list of applicable entities are minority-owned, women-owned, and disaster-stricken small businesses.\n\nThis legislation would require the SEC\u2019s Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation to add rural small businesses to its list of applicable entities.\n\nRead more about the INVEST Act:\n\nExpands access to capital for small businesses by cutting red tape, updating outdated investment thresholds, and ensuring that capital reaches beyond Wall Street and Silicon Valley to entrepreneurs across the heartland.\n\nIncreases opportunities for investors by modernizing the accredited investor definition, opening up investment options, and protecting seniors from financial fraud and exploitation.\n\nStrengthens public markets by streamlining disclosure requirements, providing businesses more flexible avenues to raise capital, and modernizing how companies test the market before initial public offerings (IPOs).\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://downing.house.gov/media/press-releases/downing-bill-expand-access-capital-rural-small-businesses-included-invest-act"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.772989122197032, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}