Christopher Cox's "sooner rather than later" on Sarbanes-Oxley reform might not be soon enough. A group of Republican legislators are to try and amend the infamous Act.

Centrepiece of the amendments would be Section 404 which deals with internal controls over financial reporting. The clause has been blamed for the perceived huge cost increase in auditing costs. Companies staying private or listing overseas are also said to be symptoms.

The proposed change would exempt companies with market capitalization of $700m and revenues of $125m to opt out of complying with Section 404.

Other changes would make material weaknesses disclosed to investors if they represented more than 5% of net profits. Companies that did not opt-out of complying with Section 404 would be subject to random external audits.

Both the House and Senate would have similar laws presented to them.

Tom Feeney from Florida has been cited as the prime mover in the House. Candice Miller and Pete Sessions are supporting Feeney.

Senator Jim DeMint is to present the law in the Senate.

Last week Cox, Chairman of the SEC commented that compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and 404 in particular could be "tricky" and supported reform.

He and other SEC officers stood up to support the Act claiming benefits outweighed the costs. Separately the SEC has declined to follow its own advisory committee's recommendations and exempt small companies.

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