ENROLLED
       2012 Legislature                                         SM 1822
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                                             20121822er
    1  
    2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
    3         urging Congress to repeal the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of
    4         2002.
    5  
    6         WHEREAS, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted on July 30,
    7  2002, in Pub. L. No. 107-204, and
    8         WHEREAS, the stated purpose of the act is “to protect
    9  investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate
   10  disclosures made pursuant to the securities laws ...,” and
   11         WHEREAS, this federal legislation was passed with the best
   12  of corrective intentions after the discovery of corporate fraud
   13  and accounting scandals that cost investors and retirees
   14  billions of dollars, and
   15         WHEREAS, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, in spite of the good
   16  intentions that motivated its passage, has created an extremely
   17  complex maze of federal regulations that are costly and damaging
   18  to public companies and diminish the companies’ ability to
   19  compete against foreign financial entities that are not subject
   20  to its regulations, and
   21         WHEREAS, the costs that businesses must bear to comply with
   22  the extensive provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are
   23  unnecessary and crippling, disproportionately affecting smaller
   24  businesses, and
   25         WHEREAS, financial market scholars have observed that the
   26  Sarbanes-Oxley Act has produced the unfortunate consequence of
   27  discouraging American businesses from listing with New York
   28  stock exchanges and listing instead in England where the markets
   29  and stock exchanges are less heavily regulated, and
   30         WHEREAS, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is a very costly example of
   31  Federal Government intrusion that imposes unnecessary regulatory
   32  costs on American businesses and interferes with basic free
   33  market principles, and
   34         WHEREAS, instead of preventing fraud and ensuring
   35  transparency, the extensive regulations created by the Sarbanes
   36  Oxley Act have thwarted the creation of new public companies,
   37  driven business away from domestic stock markets, and cost the
   38  industrial sector billions of dollars, NOW, THEREFORE,
   39  
   40  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   41  
   42         That the Congress of the United States is urged to repeal
   43  the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to remove the damaging obstacles
   44  that the act has created for American public companies and
   45  replace it with reasonable non-intrusive measures to protect
   46  investors.
   47         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
   48  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
   49  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
   50  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
   51  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.