PCAOB Exemption Bills Update (2/20/18)
PCAOB EXEMPTION UPDATE
I want to take this opportunity to update everyone on the progress we have made on both the legislative and regulatory fronts as we push for small business relief from the burden of the PCAOB audit mandate.
Over the past 8 weeks we:
· met with key legislative staff in the Senate and House of Representatives,
· wrote the draft "Private Company Correcting Audit Requirements Act of 2018" bill (!),
· socialized the draft language with key industry associations last week,
· met with the Chairman of the SEC,
· had numerous meetings with top decision makers at the SEC,
· met with the new Chairman of the PCAOB,
· met with industry associations,
· created education materials (still need some work),
· secured a website address + will create the site soon.
Within the next 2 weeks, the draft bill will be sent to legislative counsel on the Hill for content review and subsequent transition to legislative language.
Once we have legislative language our bill will be ready to be shared with members of the House and Senate -- and that is where each of you will come into play!
SENATE
· We have our sponsor in the Senate (Senator Cotton).
· We need a Democrat co-sponsor in the Senate.
HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES
· We need a sponsor and a co-sponsor in the House.
· We have some leads here, but are asking for everyone's help.
SUPPORT
In addition to helping secure sponsors/co-sponsors in the House and Senate, we will ask everyone reading this to garner support within Congress for our bill by writing letters, making phone calls, and when possible meeting with your federal legislators.
This is the year for us to get this done; there is a window for our exemption and once that window closes, in my opinion, we will not get this chance again.
We need to bring this bill THIS SPRING before the campaign races begin, which means we have to do fast work getting in front of our legislators over the next 6-8 weeks.
Please reach out if you would like to see a draft copy of the exemption bill. Please note the language may change as we work through the legislative process, but I am happy to share where we are now for those of you who are interested.
If you would like to be included in the PCAOB Exemption Working Group please send me an email and I will add you to the distribution list. In the near future I will transition to communicating through that group list (instead of this one) so I don't clog up the In Boxes of firms who don't care as much about this topic.
All the best,
Paige
Paige W. Pierce
(801) 733-9909