Once again, several of the most progressive members of Congress have introduced a wide-ranging direct attack on private equity. Called the “Stop Wall Street Looting Act,” it is yet another example of making use of a smaller crisis with one firm to try to completely rework an entire industry in a progressive image. The bill will never become law in its current form. However, it is still useful to take a look at the legislation, as well as the smaller issue that this bill is trying to address. Someday, in a more bipartisan environment, it may be possible for more practical legislation to be introduced that truly addresses this important issue.
In September, Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre ignored a subpoena to appear before a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing to respond to questions about his role in the bankruptcy of his hospital group, which spanned facilities in several states. His company, created by Cerberus Capital Management (a private equity firm), has been accused of generating large returns for its investors, while financially shortchanging its hospitals and leaving patients in unsanitary and dangerous conditions. Issues described by witnesses at this hearing included giving the remains of babies who passed away at the hospital back to parents in shipping boxes, a lack of biopsy needles, large puddles from building leaks, and low staffing issues causing the deaths of a number of Steward patients.
In 2010, Cerberus bought six struggling community hospitals from the Catholic Archdiocese, creating the Steward firm to manage them. Steward grew quickly, eventually owning as many as 40 facilities at its peak. In 2016, it signed a sale-leaseback agreement with a real estate investment trust (REIT), selling the land under their buildings and some buildings themselves to this firm. Then, Steward leased them back at inflated rents. Much of the proceeds from these land sales went to large dividends to Cerberus investors, while greatly increasing costs for Steward itself. By the time Cerberus spun Steward off as an independent firm in 2020, it had generated over $800 million in profit. The cost of paying these large dividends, via high rent payments to the REIT, put Steward in deep financial trouble. This helped cause chronic staffing shortages and the failure to pay for routine equipment maintenance, supplies, and even basic building upkeep.
Considering that a large amount of federal dollars are spent at hospitals to help pay the health care bills of Medicare and Medicaid patients, these issues at Steward should be of great interest to taxpayers. And, considering the level and severity of questioning from senators on both sides of the aisle at the HELP Committee Hearing, there is a large amount of bipartisan interest in getting to the bottom of what happened here. At the very least, there is a lot of support for increasing transparency on health care-related financial transactions. And, as we learn more about what happened at Steward, it is quite possible that bipartisan legislation will be introduced that may head off issues like this in the future.
However, this “Looting” bill will never be bipartisan. While the bill has several provisions worthy of consideration, including ending tax deductibility of some debt obligations and increasing transparency of private equity transactions, most of the bill is just a liberal shopping list of corporate attacks. It strengthens union organizing rights, ends limits on class action litigation, attacks the tax structure of all REITs, places onerous limits on capital distribution for all private equity firms, and even adds new climate-related disclosures for affected firms. Why place climate provisions in a bill meant to help limit corporate misdeeds?
Private equity is often treated as a punching bag in the media, but these firms regularly help turn private firms around, helping unlock value and large investment returns in these companies. These strong returns can increase the quality of life of retirees thanks to healthy pension plans or provide quality education to first time university students thanks to college endowments. They even fund staff salaries at foundations that support the staff of misguided members of Congress who write disastrous bills like this.
Private equity firms have provided seed capital for most of the major startup technology firms that are successful today. If you are reading this article on a computer, or on your phone, then you have benefitted from private equity. The industry does have the occasional bad actor, like most industries, and well-designed legislation may be useful. Just not this bill. Congress should not destroy a highly beneficial industry to satisfy some radical progressive goals.