The purpose of the hearing was to create a legislative history to suggest a particular piece of legislation was the subject of an authorizing committee hearing.

Chairman Garrett held the hearing on seven bills, many already been passed by the House of Representative in the last Congress. Since each of the bills have at least one Democrat as a co-sponsored, the Chairman described the subject of the hearing as dealing with non-controversial and bipartisan legislation which will soon be considered in the Financial Services Committee.

Three industry related witnesses commented favorable on all or most of the seven bills. One witness, Professor John Parsons of MIT, said five of the seven bills constituted a retreat from the reform provisions of the Dodd/Frank Act. He specifically singled out a bill requiring additional cost benefit studies at the SEC as particulaly troublesome.