	Title I: Public Company Accounting Oversight Board

Section 101 establishes the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (Board), a new,independent regulatory body, to oversee the auditing of issuers (publiccompanies which are subject to the federal securities laws). Section 103 requires the Board to establish by rule such quality control standards to be used by registered public accounting firms in the preparation and issuing ofaudit reports, as required by the Act or the rules of the Commission or as necessary or appropriate in the publicinterest or for the protection of investors. The SEC may also accept gifts and bequests for this fund. ï¿½ 1350, dealing with corporate responsibility for financial reports. ï¿½ï¿½ 78m(a) or 78o(d) and the compliance of those reports with statutory requirements in 18 U.S.C. TheU.S. ï¿½ 78j(b)) or related rules or regulations from actingas an officer or director of any issuer of a classregistered under Section 12 (15 U.S.C. Under Section 1106 of the Act, the criminal penalties available under 15 U.S.C. Selected Bills Introduced in the 108th Congress

H.R. H.R. H.R. H.R. H.R. S. 183 , referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, would amend the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of1934, the Investment Company Act of 1940, and the Investment Advisers' Act of 1940 to allow the SEC to imposea civil monetary penalty (increased penaltyamounts specified in the bill) if it finds that a person is violating, has violated, or is or was a cause of the violationof the statute or any rule or regulation and thatthe penalty is in the public interest.
On July 30, 2002, President Bush signed into law the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, P.L. 107-204 . This law has been described by some as the most important andfar-reaching securities legislation since passage of the Securities Act of 1933, 15 U.S.C. ï¿½ï¿½ 77a et seq .,and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. ï¿½ï¿½ 78a et seq ., both of which were passed in the wake of the Stock Market Crash of 1929.
The Act establishes a new Public Company Accounting Oversight Board which is to be supervised by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Act restrictsaccounting firms from performing a number of other services for the companies which they audit. The Act alsorequires new disclosures for public companies andthe officers and directors of those companies. Among the other issues affected by the new legislation are securitiesfraud, criminal and civil penalties for violatingthe securities laws and other laws, blackouts for insider trades of pension fund shares, and protections for corporatewhistleblowers.
The 108th Congress is also concerned with corporate responsibility, and several bills affecting such issues as SEC staffing, financial report certification, andcorporate expatriation have been introduced. These include H.R. 275 , H.R. 657 , H.R. 658 , H.R. 746 , H.R. 1000 , S. 183 , S. 476 , and S. 513 .