More than three years after it's original passage, but still in the infancy of its implementation, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is facing attacks on a number of fronts.
In med-February a roster of all-stars from the financial world stepped up to defend the legislation, writing a letter to federal regulators and asking that no public company be exempted from the internal controls provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
That letter was addressed to current Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox and the acting chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, William Gradison. The communication contained strong words cautioning against an SEC advisory panel's December recommendation to change SOX provisions and exempt an estimated 80 percent of public companies from at least part of the rules.
When the bill became law more than 40 months ago, there were no illusions about what the legislation meant or the lofty provisions it contained -- and it was still passed overwhelmingly by both Houses of Congress, approved by a measure of 99 to 0 in the Senate and 423 to 3 in the House . In fact, if anything, there were cries that the bill had been watered down to a version that didn't go far enough in attempting to curb corporate fraud.
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