I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2606
To require auditor independence standards of the Public Company Accounting
Oversight Board and the Securities and Exchange Commission applicable
to past audits of a company occurring before it was a public company
to treat an auditor as independent if the auditor meets established
professional standards, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL13, 2023
Mr. M
CHENRYintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Financial Services
A BILL
To require auditor independence standards of the Public
Company Accounting Oversight Board and the Securities
and Exchange Commission applicable to past audits of
a company occurring before it was a public company
to treat an auditor as independent if the auditor meets
established professional standards, and for other pur-
poses.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. AUDITOR INDEPENDENCE FOR CERTAIN PAST 1
AUDITS OCCURRING BEFORE AN ISSUER IS A 2
PUBLIC COMPANY. 3
(a) A
UDITORINDEPENDENCE STANDARDS OF THE 4
P
UBLICCOMPANYACCOUNTINGOVERSIGHTBOARD.— 5
Section 103 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (15 U.S.C. 6
7213) is amended by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(e) A
UDITORINDEPENDENCE FOR CERTAINPAST 8
A
UDITSOCCURRINGBEFORE ANISSUERISAPUBLIC 9
C
OMPANY.—With respect to an issuer that is a public 10
company or an issuer that has filed a registration state-11
ment to become a public company, the auditor independ-12
ence rules established by the Board with respect to audits 13
occurring before the last fiscal year of the issuer completed 14
before the issuer filed a registration statement to become 15
a public company shall treat an auditor as independent 16
if— 17
‘‘(1) the auditor is independent under standards 18
established by the American Institute of Certified 19
Public Accountants applicable to certified public ac-20
countants in United States; or 21
‘‘(2) with respect to a foreign issuer, the audi-22
tor is independent under comparable standards ap-23
plicable to certified public accountants in the issuer’s 24
home country.’’. 25
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(b) AUDITORINDEPENDENCE STANDARDS OF THE 1
S
ECURITIES ANDEXCHANGECOMMISSION.—Section 10A 2
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78j– 3
1) is amended by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(n) A
UDITORINDEPENDENCE FOR CERTAINPAST 5
A
UDITSOCCURRINGBEFORE ANISSUERISAPUBLIC 6
C
OMPANY.—With respect to an issuer that is a public 7
company or an issuer that has filed a registration state-8
ment to become a public company, the auditor independ-9
ence rules established by the Commission under the securi-10
ties laws with respect to audits occurring before the last 11
fiscal year of the issuer completed before the issuer filed 12
a registration statement to become a public company shall 13
treat an auditor as independent if— 14
‘‘(1) the auditor is independent under standards 15
established by the American Institute of Certified 16
Public Accountants applicable to certified public ac-17
countants in United States; or 18
‘‘(2) with respect to a foreign issuer, the audi-19
tor is independent under comparable standards ap-20
plicable to certified public accountants in the issuer’s 21
home country.’’. 22
Æ
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