[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2525 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2525

 To require a majority vote of the Securities and Exchange Commission 
  for the adoption of accounting standards and principles used in the 
   preparation of financial statements required under the Securities 
                         Exchange Act of 1934.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

            October 6 (legislative day, September 12), 1994

   Mr. Lieberman (for himself, Mr. Mack, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. Smith, Mrs. 
    Feinstein, Mr. Robb, Mr. Gregg, and Mrs. Murray) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                  Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To require a majority vote of the Securities and Exchange Commission 
  for the adoption of accounting standards and principles used in the 
   preparation of financial statements required under the Securities 
                         Exchange Act of 1934.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Accounting Standards Reform Act of 
1994''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (a) Findings.--The Congress finds that--
            (1) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Congress 
        granted the Securities and Exchange Commission (hereafter in 
        this Act referred to as the ``Commission'') broad authority to 
        set financial accounting and reporting standards for publicly 
        held companies;
            (2) historically, the Commission has delegated such 
        responsibility to the private sector, to the extent that the 
        private sector demonstrates an ability to fulfill such 
        responsibility in the public interest; and
            (3) although the Commission has reserved the right to 
        disapprove standards proposed by the private sector, a more 
        affirmative process is needed to ensure that the public 
        interest is protected.
    (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are--
            (1) to clarify the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 with 
        regard to the Commission's responsibility in setting financial 
        accounting and reporting standards for publicly held companies; 
        and
            (2) to ensure that the public interest is served in the 
        financial accounting standards setting process.

SEC. 3. ADOPTION OF ACCOUNTING STANDARDS AND PRINCIPLES FOR PURPOSES OF 
              THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934.

    Section 13(b)(1) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 
78m(b)(1)) is amended by adding at the end the following: ``On and 
after the date of enactment of the Accounting Standards Reform Act of 
1994, any new accounting standard or principle, and any modification to 
an existing accounting standard or principle, to be used in the 
preparation of financial statements required to be filed pursuant to 
this title shall become effective only following an affirmative vote of 
a majority of a quorum of the members of the Commission.''.
                                 <all>