H.R. 3606, the Jump-Start Our Business Start-ups Bill (the JOBS Bill), passed the House of Representatives with broad bipartisan support on March 8. The JOBS Bill includes significant reforms intended to facilitate capital raising by small businesses.

It includes, among other things:

• A new category of issuer, the "emerging growth company", which includes companies with revenue of less than $1 billion in the most recently completed fiscal year, until the company becomes a large accelerated filer, reaches the fifth anniversary of its initial public offering of equity securities, or issues more than $1 billion in nonconvertible debt in any three year period. Emerging growth companies (a) would be exempt from the attestation requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, (b) would only have to present two years of audited financial data and selected financial information in a registration statement for an initial public offering, and (c) would be exempt from certain other disclosure requirements including selected disclosures relating to executive compensation;

• A repeal of the ban on general solicitation or general advertising in Regulation D offerings and Rule 144A offerings, so long as the issuer or seller took reasonable steps to ensure that all purchasers were accredited investors or qualified institutional buyers, as applicable;