RELEASE: House Passes Bipartisan INVEST Act, Including Gottheimer Bill to Stop Senior Scams, to Support Our Small Businesses, Tackle the Cost Crisis

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, December 11, 2025, the House passed the bipartisan INVEST Act to support our small businesses, combat scams targeting seniors, and tackle the cost crisis that is crushing American pocketbooks. The INVEST Act included Congressman Josh Gottheimer’s bipartisan Senior Security Act, which will create a Senior Investor Taskforce at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to focus on how seniors are being targeted by fraudsters seeking to take financial advantage of them. 

“The bipartisan INVEST Act takes vital steps to give Jersey small businesses and start-ups the resources they need to grow and thrive, which is becoming increasingly important as costs continue to surge. This bill also includes my bipartisan legislation, the Senior Security Act, to protect our vulnerable seniors from fraudsters who seek to take financial advantage of them,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), a member of the House Financial Services Committee. “Millions of seniors across the country, including my own mother, have been the victims of financial scams, and this bipartisan legislation will help protect our seniors from having their hard-earned retirement savings stolen right out from under them.”

Just last week, an FTC report found that the number of seniors reporting losses of more than $100,000 to fraud increased more than fivefold between 2020 and 2024.

The bipartisan INVEST Act will:

• Expand Access to Capital for Small Businesses: Cut red tape so startups and small businesses can raise capital more efficiently, update outdated investment thresholds, and ensure capital reaches beyond Wall Street.
• Increase Opportunities For Investors: Expand investment opportunities for retail investors and provide new avenues for Americans to grow their retirement accounts. 
• Strengthen Our Public Markets: Make it faster and simpler for businesses to go and stay public and provide more flexibility for businesses to raise capital on competitive terms. 

The bipartisan Senior Security Act, which passed the House in the INVEST Act, will:

• Put a Cop on the Beat: Create a task force at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to focus on how seniors are being targeted by fraudsters seeking to take financial advantage of them.
• Improve Federal Oversight of Scams: Every two years, the task force will submit a report to Congress outlining trends and innovations — including robocalls and voice spoofing — that are impacting seniors, to help us stay ahead of changes in financial scams.

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