The Martha Zoller Show Feb. 21 

9:30 John Berlau on Sarbanes Oxley.

On Thursday, the day after my testimony, the House indeed passed the “on-ramp” IPO liberalization bill by 54-1. Here’s the WSJ articlehttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204880404577227853616803384.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

 Contrary to the article’s assertion, Sarbanes-Oxley’s 404(b) – the auditor’s attestation of internal controls – is more than a “technical provision.” It’s the costliest provision of the law – average annual costs of $2.3 million per company – and it is the reason the law is called the “accountants full employment act.” This bill exempts firms below $1 billion in revenues from SOX 404, executive compensation provisions of Dodd-Frank, Eliot Spitzer’s restrictions on analyst coverage, and other onerous rules from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board until the five-year anniversary of their IPOs

 From my House Commerce testimony Wednesday on this and other access-to-capital bills that have sailed through the House, but still linger in the do-noting Senate. http://cei.org/regulatory-comments-and-testimony/testimony-jobs-house-subcommittee-commerce-manufacturing-and-trade

 “The good news is that there is an emerging bipartisan consensus on scaling back regulations that burden these firms, with proposals to do so being embraced by both the House leadership and the Obama administration. Contrary to media reports, members of the House from both parties and the administration are finding common ground on some jobs bills, particularly regarding access to capital. In fact in one week this autumn, this House passed four bills with near-unanimity -- more than 400 votes for each measure -- to ease regulatory barriers to access to capital. These bills, still lingering in the U.S. Senate, would lift barriers to innovations such as “crowdfunding,” in which smaller firms can utilize social networking to raise seed capital, and make it easier for entrepreneurs to connect with venture capitalists and angel investors through general advertising. (The bills are H.R. 1070, H.R. 1965, H.R. 2930, and H.R. 2940.)

Your colleagues in the House Financial Services Committee are also slated this week to mark up a bill designed to smooth the IPO process for these young firms by creating a so-called on-ramp of regulatory relief. H.R. 3606, the Reopening American Capital Markets to Emerging Growth Companies Act of 2011 sponsored by Reps Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) and John Carney(D-Del.), exempts firms going public from some of the most burdensome provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul of 2010, and also eases rules for firms providing analyst research of these companies.”

I also note in the testimony that the decline in IPOs – caused by Sarbox and other regs – may be responsible for 22 million jobs not created.

 10:30 Susan Yoshihara on the show to discuss how the US population will be its strength. Kevin P. McVicker Account Supervisor Shirley & Banister Public Affairs