Hon. Michael G. Oxley: “Mr. Speaker, 4 years ago Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to rectify the troubling accounting and reporting issue…”

“Mr. Speaker, 4 years ago Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to rectify the troubling accounting and reporting issue exposed by the largest corporate scandals in U.S. history. This landmark legislation strengthened the role of auditors, boards of directors, and audit committees, and in doing so stabilized America's capital markets. By enhancing the transparency and accountability of our public companies, Sarbanes-Oxley sought to fortify the pillars upon which our securities laws stand. Within the many sweeping reforms implemented by the act was a provision, little noticed at the time, which required the SEC to examine credit rating agencies. Four years, one SEC report, over seven House and Senate hearings, and countless committee hours later, I stand before my colleagues in support of final action to bring much needed competition to the credit rating agencies. S. 3850, the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act, closely follows and makes minor additions to H.R. 2990, the Credit Rating Agency Duopoly Relief Act, which was introduced by Congressman Michael Fitzpatrick in June 2005, and passed the House on July 12 of this year. Like Mr. Fitzpatrick's bill, S. 3850 levels the playing field in the ratings industry by replacing an SEC designation process that benefits a privileged few with a voluntary registration system available to all.”