Austin Scott: “this Promoting Transparency in Financial Reporting Act is a bipartisan bill that the House considered last year and…”

“this Promoting Transparency in Financial Reporting Act is a bipartisan bill that the House considered last year and passed on a voice vote. The legislation, however, failed to become law during the 109th Congress; and as a result, we now must consider these matters anew in the 110th Congress. H.R. 755 has a simple premise, Mr. Speaker. For the next 5 years, it would require annual testimony before the House Financial Services Committee by those entities most involved in establishing and implementing our Nation's financial reporting system. These parties include the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Since the 1930s, the Securities and Exchange Commission has required public companies to file financial reports like income statements and balance sheets. Today, companies also rely on the generally accepted accounting principles developed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to prepare these reporting documents. This independent accounting standard-setter came into existence in the 1970s. The tidal wave of accounting scandals at the start of this decade led Congress to reassess our Nation's financial reporting system and adopt further reforms in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Among other things, this landmark law created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. This body establishes the auditing standards used to examine public company accounting statements.”