Patrick McHenryChairman

Washington, October 7, 2011 - The legislation, introduced by Rep. Stephen Fincher, expands the exemptions available to small companies from certain costly reporting requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Since 2007 the SEC has exempted small companies with a market capitalization of less than $75 million. Market participants have repeatedly said the current SEC exemption provides no benefit since the threshold is too low.

The bill was approved by the Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee on October 5th. The vote on final passage was 18 to 14.

Upon Subcommittee passage of the bill, Rep. Fincher said, “Today’s subcommittee passage of the Small Company Job Growth and Regulatory Relief Act committee draft is a first step in slicing through needless regulation to help small companies use their scarce resources to expand and create jobs.  Expanding the Sarbanes-Oxley 404(b) exemptions will encourage more companies to go public in the United States, instead of abroad. My legislation will also create more opportunity for companies to raise desperately needed capital to reinvest and grow business, while still preserving the goal of Sarbanes-Oxley. I look forward to advancing with this legislation and seeing it go to a full committee vote.”