Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

27. Financial Regulatory Agencies · Notable

Abolish Rule 144 and other restrictions on securities resales

Not started

831 27. Financial Regulatory Agencies

“Abolish Rule 144 and other regulations that restrict securities resales and instead require a company that has sold securities to provide sufficient current information to the market to permit reasonable investment decisions and secondary sales.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    Rule 144 is intact and the Commission's stated plan is to widen it, not to abolish it. The Regulatory Flexibility Agenda published 2026-08-14 carries RIN 3235-AM78, 'Rule 144 Safe Harbor', whose abstract says the Division is considering recommending that the Commission repropose amendments 'to increase instances in which the safe harbor would be available', with a second notice of proposed rulemaking estimated for October 2026. Broadening a safe harbor is the opposite of abolishing it and is not the current-information regime the Quote asks for in its place, so under playbook §3b the Status stays where it is. The rule is also still being administered: the Commission renewed the Form 144 information collection twice in the window, on 2026-04-15 and 2026-06-22. No bill of the 119th Congress addresses securities resale restrictions.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • The ask has two limbs: abolish Rule 144 and the other resale restrictions, and replace them with a current-information duty on issuers that have sold securities. Neither limb has an instrument in the window.
  • The direction of travel is toward more Rule 144, not less. The 2021 proposal the agenda entry refers back to (86 FR 5063) would have tightened the rule for market-adjustable securities; the reproposal described in the 2026 agenda would loosen it. Either way the safe harbour stays.
  • Other resale restrictions are being extended, not removed. Regulation Crypto Assets (2026-08-21) proposes its own resale conditions for covered investment contracts and cites Rule 144(a)(3)(ii) and the one-year Regulation Crowdfunding resale restriction as the existing baseline it is building on.
  • Adjacent and not this ask. The Registered Offering Reform proposal (2026-05-26) makes it easier for more issuers to register resales on Form S-3 and to run at-the-market offerings, which reduces the practical need for Rule 144 without touching the rule. That proposal is cited on #2124 and #2139.
  • Nothing in Congress. Corpus title greps of bills.ndjson for “144”, “resale” and “restricted securities” return no securities measure.
Action
abolish
Object
Rule 144 and other securities resale restrictions
ID
2141