Two-and-a-half years after Congress passed the most sweeping corporate reforms since the Great Depression, trade groups are maneuvering to revise them, arguing that they are too expensive, too time-consuming and too much trouble for small businesses.
In recent weeks industry coalitions including the trade group AeA, formerly known as the American Electronics Association, and the American Bankers Association have asked their members to gather complaints about costly provisions that require them to tune-up their financial systems to help uncover fraud and mistakes. The effort is part of a broader campaign planned for this year to modify the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed after financial blowups at Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc. cost investors billions of dollars and exposed serious lapses in the way companies are governed.
Mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments persuaded Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) to insert language into a conference report in November on a fast-moving spending bill, directing the Securities and Exchange Commission to justify a new rule that forces fund companies to appoint directors without ties to management. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has hauled the SEC into court over the rule.
Separately, opponents of a plan released last month that requires companies to treat stock options as an expense, a move that could sharply cut reported profits at technology companies, vowed to blanket Congress and the SEC early this year to prevent the plan from taking effect, as planned, in June. They will point to a series of letters from 53 senators from both parties to help support their position.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43168-2005Jan2.html
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