Statement on the Proposed Amendment to Rule 144

The amendment to Rule 144 that the Commission proposed today is on the one hand a small, highly technical change, but on the other is the kind of unglamorous work that finely tunes our regulatory regime to meet the changing needs of the market. This proposed rulemaking would close a loophole that could put investors at risk and appears to have done little to forward the legitimate interests of smaller companies or their early-stage investors. Our ability to identify and address such details of regulation attest to the acumen of our staff and, in this case in particular, our former Director of Corporation Finance, Bill Hinman. This proposed amendment is a necessary change and one I was pleased to support.