Free Smaller Companies to Go Public by Rolling Back Burdensome Sarbanes-Oxley Accounting Rules

From Liberate to Stimulate: A Bipartisan Agenda to Restore Limited Government and Revive America's Economy

Liberate to Stimulate Index

In CEI’s last Agenda for Congress, we recommended that “smaller public companies be exempt from Sarbanes-Oxley’s Section 404.” Indeed, despite the rampant fervor of the past Congress to reregulate, enough members of both parties in Congress were concerned about the impact of the Sarbox accounting rules on smaller firms that they permanently exempted firms with market valuation of $75 million or below.

This was a significant step, but Congress needs to go much further to lift Sarbox barriers to business and job growth. For new firms to expand and create more jobs, they need to be able to go public. And right now, Sarbox is one of the biggest barriers to small and midsize firms going public.