Republican lawmakers are planning to shut down the US audit regulator, which was founded in the wake of the Enron scandal more than two decades ago, as part of a reform package designed to deliver Donald Trump’s deregulatory agenda.
The proposal to eliminate the independent Public Company Accounting Oversight Board was published late on Friday by the leadership of the House Committee on Financial Services, for inclusion in the giant tax and spending bill being considered by Congress.
Under the draft legislation, a levy on listed companies and broker-dealers that funds the PCAOB would be scrapped and the organisation’s responsibilities would be folded into the Securities and Exchange Commission.