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For over four years, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization and the leadership of the House Financial Services Committee have been trying to pass a bill that would prevent the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from collecting searchable financial data from most public companies. Fortunately, it is probably never going to become law. But why are the biotech industry and the Financial Services Committee leadership so fixated on the Small Company Disclosure Simplification Act?

Progress in RegTech has been seen in the private sector as access to quality data improve. This progress has not been mirrored in the private sector here in the United States, but the potential to improve government efficiency is not far off.

Last week the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed its first expansion of open corporate data in nearly nine years. Here's where the new proposal came from, what it means, and why it matters.

Alex Pollock - former president and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago - told the 2017 Financial Data Summit that "the time has really come" to standardize financial regulatory data.

FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR HUDSON HOLLISTER: "We call on the new Trump Administration and the 115th Congress to enforce (and expand) the DATA Act, embrace a government-wide transformation of all information resources through the OPEN Government Data Act, and initiate regulatory reforms that use open data to reduce burdens, governed by the Financial Transparency Act and other reforms. I am optimistic that we will realize all three goals."

Standard Business Reporting programs are in place in the Netherlands and Australia. SBR applies open data to regulation by adopting consistent data standards across multiple agencies' reporting requirements. SBR can reduce compliance costs while avoiding political battles over the substance of what companies are required to report to regulatory agencies. The 115th Congress and the Trump Administration should take notice.

The Data Coalition and seven other financial and technology organizations today sent a letter to the Financial Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives requesting that the committee convene a hearing on the need for regulatory agencies to modernize the way they collect information from public companies, banks, markets, and financial firms.

In April, the Securities and Exchange Commission published a 341-page Concept Release exploring the future of corporate disclosure in the United States. Yesterday the Data Coalition responded. This is the Coalition’s third major appeal for the SEC to transform its disclosure system.

Last week, the Data Coalition hosted a record-setting Financial Data Summit in Washington. We brought together over 300 supporters of transforming U.S. financial regulatory reporting from disconnected documents into standardized, open data.

For the third time in 18 months, the House of Representatives passed a multi-part financial services package bill with Rep. Robert Hurt's (R-VA) anti-open data proposal included, and sent it to the Senate. But yesterday's debates, votes, and White House statement sent a clear message to the Senate: restricting open data is controversial. If the Senate Banking Committee wants to craft a broadly popular financial services bill that will earn Democratic votes and President Obama's signature, the committee should leave out Rep. Hurt's open data exemption.