Florida Senate Adopts Memorial Asking Congress to Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley

February 15, 2012 | Important Updates Print

Two of the top priorities of the Florida Chamber of Commerce during the 2012 Legislative Session include reducing duplicative and burdensome regulations and lowering the cost of doing business on Florida’s employers. These overburdensome rules and regulations continue to drive up costs for public companies at a time when we need to enhance our global competitiveness.

The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act created hundreds of regulations and continues to make it costly and difficult to open new businesses and expand and grow current businesses. Although the law was passed to address corporate scandals and problems related to large companies, it has made it harder for small companies to go public and limits growth. The Florida Chamber supports efforts to reform Sarbanes-Oxley.

Efforts to reform the Sarbanes-Oxley Act include:

• Phasing out rules and regulations during the initial years following an IPO, which could potentially lower the barriers to going public for young companies;
• Raising the limit on public offerings from $5 million to $50 million for companies that are exempt from SEC registration requirements under Regulation A; and
• Streamlining paperwork for companies trying to raise capital.

Because of Sarbanes-Oxley, going public has become too expensive for businesses, costing about $2.5 million on average for the initial regulatory compliance and several million each year afterword, according to the IPO Task Force. The Florida Chamber supports any effort to reduce and scale back the massive amount of regulations that face our businesses and make it costly to do business in Florida.

The Florida Senate adopted a Memorial late yesterday urging Congress to repeal the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. SB 1822 is sponsored by Sen. Alan Hays and asks Congress to revisit Sarbanes-Oxley in an attempt to improve the regulatory and business climate in the United States in an effort to improve our economy. The Florida Chamber supports this memorial and urges Congress to adopt a more reasonable and business-friendly law.

The House companion to SB 1822 is HB 1307 by Rep. Jeff Brandes. HB 1307 has passed one committee in the House and is now in the House State Affairs Committee.