May 24, 2007
HP-422

Under Secretary Steel
Statement on Section 404
Implementation Actions

Washington, DC- U.S. Treasury Under Secretary for Domestic Finance Robert K. Steel released the following statement today regarding the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's votes to address the implementation of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act:

"The SEC and the PCAOB, after carefully considering the effects of Section 404, moved this week to strike the right balance in enhancing financial reporting quality and eliminating unintended costs. These key reforms should ensure that Section 404 is implemented in a risk-based and appropriately-scalable fashion, without sacrificing investor protection or diminishing the value of sound internal controls over financial reporting. Now that the regulators have acted, it is critical that public companies and the auditing profession respond to this call.

"Treasury congratulates the SEC, the PCAOB and their chairmen, Chris Cox and Mark Olson, for their cooperation in working to uphold investors' confidence in and the competitiveness of America's capital markets."