On the recordMarch 7, 2012
I thank the gentlelady for yielding. I actually rise with some significant concerns about the IPO on-ramp provisions of this bill. I'm concerned because there already is exempted from the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance requirements about 60 percent of the IPOs that we see, and this would extend the period in which companies have the requirement of complying with Sarbanes-Oxley to 5 years for companies that exceed that $75 million and go up to $1 billion in revenues. My concern about that is that's a period of time in which a lot of mischief can be done when it comes to financial fraud, and I think it exposes investors to significant potential damage. My hope would have been that this could have been remedied along the way. Because of my concerns about it, I'm going to be compelled to vote against the bill because I think it really has the effect of gutting significant investor protections.
