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Uh... what? The house passed the bill today. The senate might vote on it as soon as Tuesday. The two bills would then need to be reconciled before Obama could ever sign it.

The photo from the top is a stock photo from Obama presenting "The American Jobs Act" (a stimulus package) back in September of last year.

I sure hope it passes.. but it hasn't yet. What kind of reporting is this?

EDIT: It looks like the HN title has been updated, but not the venturebeat article (yet).

Absolutely. The House and Senate are agreeing on the major terms of the law, basically working from the same version. The House passed the Senate's suggestions. The Senate will agree with their own wording, so this should pass. Everybody's looking for a win here.

Now we can begin planning for the new rules of the game. The timing is still up in the air, but the count down is on.

But yeah, sloppy journalism.

Well, I don't know. As a commentator said in the news cycle, this is basically the same crowd-funding bill that already passed the house, but has been tied up in the Senate where there are three competing proposals, each very different from the house in details. Hopefully this momentum will cause one of the otherwise stalled Senate bills to be put to a vote, but reconciliation of the two versions might not be a simple process.
Hah. I came here to post, "This makes far too much sense, are we sure Congress really passed this?"
I wonder to what extent the law of unintended consequences will show its ugly head here. While it is cool that literally everyone and their moms can start a new business or make apps or something like that, I bet it contributes to the boom/bust cycle. I guess I wouldn't have it any other way though...
That's a very valid concern. The effect of this can create a boom cycle especially since allows a mass of less experienced players into the market. We've seen this with buying stocks and the property market. That said, I also wouldn't have it any other way , it's really about reducing barriers to new business and something that's needed. It would be nice to see this sort of thing in the UK, but I think it is unlikely.
Risk management definitely needs to be a primary consideration for this to scale without exploding.
Yup this article is wrong, only passed the house so far. That being said, I think the bill is a real double edged sword. Deregulation is always going to lead to bad actors, and I see a rise in fraud from startups that raise funds from the crowd . As for the IPO, look at how the SEC treated Groupon. That is the kind of oversight a IPO demands.
So does this mean I no longer have to be an accredited investor to purchase shares on companies?
It will if/when this passes. It's not passed yet, article is wrong. But it should if you know the nuances (working on a blog post now).

Basically, you'll be able to invest up to 10% of your income or up to $10k, whichever is less. Startups can raise up to $1mm that way or $2mm if they get themselves audited.

Also worth noting: the Senate versions are very different, and much more restrictive (limits of $1k, $500k cap, and mandatory auditing in at least one version I read). The house version is much, much more startup-friendly, and hopefully the momentum of this new combined bill will help a similar version pass the Senate.
Does this freedom extend to buying and selling shares on secondary markets, or only for fundraising.

Imagine the fun of manipulating competition by heavy trading in secondary market shares of tiny companies...

I'm excited about the chance to get in on secondary markets as a way to get started into the start up investing game. So I hope that it does.
How does this apply to non-US citizens?
Okay, Obama hasn't signed this into law (yet). But with the momentum it has and the current political situation, it looks like its on the fast track. Once it is signed into law, has anyone put together a kickstarter-for-startups site? An AngelList for the masses? Anyone have a set of standardized legal forms that can be used for crowd funding?

My startup is going to raise its first round in a few weeks to a month's time.. we would love to be a test case for crowd funding, if this is law by then.

This is way overdue-- consider the fact that this existed in Bangladesh back in the mid 1980s... for people who literally had no credit.

I think the tricky part will be about how deep the SEC wants to get entrenched in this type of action-- how will they view individual investments differently from stocks?

Worst case scenario, this JOBS bill might be a trojan horse to bring more regulation to the startup world (starting with enabling funding, then phasing in regulation in waves).

Either way, this is a sign of progress...

As maaku stated, this is the exact same bill that also passed on its own in November. Some Democrats criticized the JOBS Act as gamesmanship as it mostly reintroduced legislation already passed in the House.

Next step is for the Senate to pass an investment crowdfunding bill. It is not clear how quickly this will happen or how similar the bills might be. We had this much momentum behind investment crowdfunding in November only to be disappointed to date. But Senator Schumer's statement Tuesday was encouraging.

http://fundinglaunchpad.com/2012/03/investment-crowdfunding-...

From the comments in the article, it seems the Act has not been passed and that the article is incorrect.

Anyone know enough to confirm that the article is in fact incorrect?

It passed the house and I believe it now goes to the Senate and on to Obama to sign.
The most recent House version that came up for vote on Feb 26th is using changes that came as feedback from the setup (basically). Of course the Senate will agree with their own suggestions and Obama's got everthing to gain for supporting a "JOBS Act" :)

Real crowdfunding, here we come!

Here's the full length version of the Act that passed today in the House. It was submitted on Feb. 26th.

http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20120305/CPRT-112-HPRT-R...