Lynn Turner of Glass Lewis gives us a history lesson: "Often one reads that SOX was hastily created by Congress without much thought. However, that position is usually espoused by people who had - or have - no knowledge of the legislative history, or quite frankly oppose the regulation.
The intial "roots" of Sarbanes-Oxley go back to the '72-'73 Bear market and scandals such as Penn Central, Equity Funding, National Student Marketing - as well as the corporate corrupt payments and bribes that came to light during the Watergate investigations and other such shenanagins. During that time, Congress held many hearings into corporate governance practices and the accounting profession in general. The Congressional Staff also undertook an investigation and created a Staff Report on the accounting profession.
As a result of these deliberations, legislation was introduced in 1978 on these problems and further hearings were held. However, after the death of one key Congressional backer and another backer decided not to stand for re-election, this legislation stalled. This legislation would have created an oversight body for the accounting profession - similar to today's PCAOB - and would have strengthened audit committees.
Similar legislation was considered once again by members of Congress, regulators and the profession during the debate over the '95 tort reform legislation known as PSLRA. However, no legislation was enacted.
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