Jan. 17, 2020
Dear Chairman Clayton and Secretary Countryman, I am just a lowly tiny citizen of the US. I am middle class and hardly have income to invest. I appreciate the SEC and it’s role to help regulate companies and protect investors. We have the strongest and most trustworthy financial system in the world because of the SEC and the regulations on public companies. I oppose these rule changes, S7-22-19 and S7-23-19, as written. I am shocked the SEC would try to curtail shareholder rights of individual and small investors in this way. These rule changes should be subtitled — only the wealthy warrant being heard. By increasing the threshold needed to file a proposal to $25,000 in stock, you know you are limiting proposals to funds and wealthy private investors. All data shows that regular people, average citizens, do not hold $25000 in any single investment. But, you know this. I have no illusion that you care about any of us small investors, or you would have written a more balanced rule change. This type of rule, that tries to squash the individuals ability to facilitate change in a company, is something China would propose. Michelle Hermanson [redacted]