[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1526 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1526

To amend the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to prohibit the Public Company 
   Accounting Oversight Board from requiring public companies to use 
    specific auditors or require the use of different auditors on a 
                            rotating basis.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 19, 2013

Mr. Toomey (for himself and Mr. Manchin) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, 
                           and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to prohibit the Public Company 
   Accounting Oversight Board from requiring public companies to use 
    specific auditors or require the use of different auditors on a 
                            rotating basis.

    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 ``Audit Integrity and Job Protection 
Act''.

SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON AUTHORITY RELATING TO AUDITORS.

    Section 103 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (15 U.S.C. 7213) is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(e) Limitation on Authority.--The Board shall have no authority 
under this title to require that audits conducted for a particular 
issuer in accordance with the standards set forth under this section be 
conducted by specific registered public accounting firms, or that such 
audits be conducted for an issuer by different registered public 
accounting firms on a rotating basis.''.

SEC. 3. STUDY OF MANDATORY ROTATION OF REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING 
              FIRMS.

    (a) Study and Review Required.--The Comptroller General of the 
United States shall update its November 2003 report entitled ``Study on 
the Potential Effects of Mandatory Audit Firm Rotation'', and review 
the potential effects, including the costs and benefits, of requiring 
the mandatory rotation of registered public accounting firms. In 
addition, the update shall include a study of--
            (1) whether mandatory rotation of registered public 
        accounting firms would mitigate against potential conflicts of 
        interest between registered public accounting firms and 
        issuers;
            (2) whether mandatory rotation of registered public 
        accounting firms would impair audit quality due to the loss of 
        industry or company-specific knowledge gained by a registered 
        public accounting firm through years of experience auditing the 
        issuer; and
            (3) what affect the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has had on 
        registered public accounting firms' independence and whether 
        additional independence reforms are needed.
    (b) Report Required.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall submit a report to 
the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate and 
the Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives on 
the results of the study and review required by this section.
    (c) Definition.--For purposes of this section, the term ``mandatory 
rotation'' refers to the imposition of a limit on the period of years 
in which a particular registered public accounting firm may be the 
auditor of record for a particular issuer.
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