Lawmaker outlines Empowering Main Street Act, calls for 2026 to be 'year of affordability'

At an IPA awards event, a lawmaker accepted the IPA’s 2026 Investing in America Award and detailed a proposal called the Empowering Main Street Act, saying the measure would make it easier for people to build wealth without beginning from wealth.

"Empowering Main Street Act is a is my attempt to make sure that we find ways to make it easier for people to create wealth without starting with wealth," the lawmaker said, describing the bill as focused on relaxing some barriers to becoming an accredited investor and adopting "common sense approaches" to increase broad access to profit-making opportunities.

The speaker framed the bill as complementary to earlier initiatives, saying "the success of the Genius Act ... only reinforces the importance of our currency and our treasuries," and used that point to argue for legislative follow-through.

Turning to broader economic priorities, the lawmaker urged that "2026 has to be the year of affordability," saying that failing to make affordability a national focus would miss what Americans are discussing. The speaker also appealed to cross-aisle cooperation, arguing that most members of Congress "left or right" care about the country and that an open-minded approach is likelier to win advocates for "common sense."

The remarks were delivered in the context of the award presentation and did not include details such as bill text, exact statutory changes, a legislative timetable, or the names of co-sponsors. No vote or formal committee action was reported in the transcript.