NEWS RELEASE
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE DEMOCRATS
Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member

DINGELL HAILS REPUBLICAN RETREAT ON ACCOUNTING

Washington, D.C. – Congressman John D. Dingell (D-MI), Ranking Member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and a conferee on the House-Senate Conference Committee on H.R. 3763, the "Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002," issued the following statement about the conference committee’s approval of the Sarbanes bill:

"I salute the Republicans for throwing the accounting lobbyists overboard. I regret that this surrender to the public interest is occurring too late to forestall the recent significant harm to investors and employees from the wave of corporate and accounting scandals."

"The Sarbanes bill, like my bill (H.R. 3970) and the legislation introduced by Rep. LaFalce, will provide an independent and strong oversight board to replace the failed self-regulatory system. It sets high standards for auditor independence and provides independent funding and stronger oversight for the Financial Accounting Standards Board. It will hold CEOs accountable for their company’s public financial disclosures, and ensure strong law enforcement through enhanced resources for the SEC, a longer statute of limitations for lawsuits by defrauded investors, and harsher criminal penalties for corporate wrongdoers."

"When I was chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, I held over 30 hearings on the accounting industry and tried to push legislation to clean up the problems that those hearings unveiled. In the Minority, I fought against the Republican legislation to significantly weaken the constraints on fraudulent behavior and I supported former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt’s fight against earnings management and for meaningful auditor independence rules. We won a few but mostly we failed against overwhelming odds. It gives me no pleasure to be able to say today that ‘I told you so.’ It does give me great pleasure to support the conference agreement and to commend Senator Sarbanes for this outstanding legislative achievement. The country will be far better for it."

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