A bill to amend the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to institute a trading prohibition for certain issuers that retain public accounting firms that have not been subject to inspection by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and for other purposes.

Bill: 117-s-2184
Sponsor: Sen. Kennedy, John [R-LA]
Introduced: 2021-06-22 in the Senate
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector
Subjects: Accounting and auditing
Corporate finance and management
Financial services and investments
Securities

Summary:
action_date: 2021-06-22
text: 
This bill revises provisions related to the required certification to the Securities and Exchange Commission by certain publicly traded companies that they are not owned or controlled by a foreign government. 
 
Under current law, a company must make this certification if the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is unable to audit specified reports because the company has retained a foreign public accounting firm not subject to inspection by the board due to a position taken by an authority in that foreign jurisdiction. Under this bill, a company must submit this certification if a position taken by any foreign government (not only the foreign government in which the firm is located) prevents inspection of the firm. 
 
Furthermore, under current law, if the board is unable to inspect the company's public accounting firm for three consecutive years, the company's securities are banned from trade on a national exchange or through other methods. The bill reduces this time to two consecutive years. 

action_date: 2021-06-22
text: 
This bill revises provisions related to the required certification to the Securities and Exchange Commission by certain publicly traded companies that they are not owned or controlled by a foreign government. 
 
Under current law, a company must make this certification if the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is unable to audit specified reports because the company has retained a foreign public accounting firm not subject to inspection by the board due to a position taken by an authority in that foreign jurisdiction. Under this bill, a company must submit this certification if a position taken by any foreign government (not only the foreign government in which the firm is located) prevents inspection of the firm. 
 
Furthermore, under current law, if the board is unable to inspect the company's public accounting firm for three consecutive years, the company's securities are banned from trade on a national exchange or through other methods. The bill reduces this time to two consecutive years.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2021-06-24
text: Held at the desk.
action_date: 2021-06-24
text: Received in the House.
action_date: 2021-06-24
text: Message on Senate action sent to the House.
action_date: 2021-06-22
text: Introduced in the Senate, read twice, considered, read the third time, and passed without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S4692; text: CR S4692)
action_date: 2021-06-22
text: Passed/agreed to in Senate: Introduced in the Senate, read twice, considered, read the third time, and passed without amendment by Unanimous Consent.(consideration: CR S4692; text: CR S4692)
action_date: 2021-06-22
text: Introduced in Senate