Accelerating Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act

Bill: 117-hr-6285
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Sherman, Brad [D-CA-30]
Introduced: 2021-12-14
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector
Latest action: action_date: 2021-12-14
text: Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.

Summaries:
action_date: 2021-12-14
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><strong>Accelerating Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act</strong></p> <p>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. </p> <p>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. </p> <p>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. </p>

tv_txt: I 117th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 6285 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES December 14, 2021 Mr. Sherman (for himself, Mrs. Spartz , and Mr. Barr ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 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.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Accelerating Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act . 2. Trading prohibition for 2 consecutive non-inspection years Section 104(i) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 ( 15 U.S.C. 7214(i) ) is amended— (1) in paragraph (2)(A)(ii), by striking the foreign jurisdiction described in clause (i) and inserting a foreign jurisdiction ; and (2) in paragraph (3)— (A) in the paragraph heading, by striking 3 and inserting 2 ; and (B) in subparagraph (A), in the matter preceding clause (i), by striking 3 and inserting 2 .