PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · May 7, 2025
American Ownership and Resilience Act
This bill creates an investment facility to support the conversion of private businesses into employee-owned businesses.
Specifically, the Department of Commerce must establish an investment facility that provides leverage to ownership investment companies (OICs) licensed by Commerce.
Under the bill, OICs
manage capital for the purpose of financing the sale of a private business to an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) or eligible worker-owned cooperative,
have the authority to borrow money and issue securities or other obligations to finance the sale, and
have the full faith and credit of the United States to guarantee the payment of all such amounts.
In a sale to an ESOP, an independent trustee must be appointed to obtain a fairness opinion on the investment from an independent financial advisor.
New OICs may be mentored by other OICs through the Protégé OIC program established by the bill.
The bill also establishes private capital requirements, third-party debt limitations, and enforcement provisions.
People & committees
Sen. Van Hollen, Chris [D-MD] · D–MD
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: May 22, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze S.1645 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine S.1645 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine S.1645 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine S.1645 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.