Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the PCAOB Enforcement Transparency Act, which I reintroduce today with Senator Grassley, will permit the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to make public the disciplinary proceedings it has brought against auditors and audit firms earlier in the process. More than fifteen years ago, our markets were victimized by a series of massive financial reporting frauds, including those involving Enron and WorldCom. In response to this crisis, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs conducted multiple hearings, which produced consensus on a number of underlying causes, including weak corporate governance, a lack of accountability, and inadequate oversight of accountants charged with auditing public companies' financial statements. In a 99 to 0 vote, the Senate passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to address the structural weaknesses and faults revealed by the hearings. Among its many provisions, this law called for the creation of a strong and independent board, the PCAOB, responsible for overseeing auditors of public companies in order to protect investors who rely on independent audit reports on the financial statements of public companies. To conduct its duties, the PCAOB, under the oversight of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), oversees more than 1,800 registered accounting firms, as well as the audit partners and staff who contribute to a firm's work on each audit.…”