Barney says

The Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Financial Services Committee is as liberal as liberal gets. But if the wireless industry and other business sectors look hard enough, they just may see a glimmer of hope in getting relief from post-modern government regulation of U.S. capital markets. But only a glimmer.
Barney Frank, speaking without script to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last week, indicated he’s open to considering some targeted easing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Totally unrelated, Frank is in the “thinking stage” of legislating a repeal of the law banning Internet gambling. Any bets on whether he’ll go for it?
Sarbanes-Oxley, which went into effect in 2003, was Congress’ retort to multibillion-dollar corporate-accounting scandals that birthed naughty poster children with names like Enron, Worldcom and Tyco. By putting an end to incestuous relationships among auditors, Wall Street analysts and corporate boards, the hope was to restore investor confidence.
While Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission appear to have achieved the primary objective, there is a growing drumbeat in the business community to re-examine auditing and corporate governance reforms that companies decry as unnecessarily costly and detrimental to the point of steering initial public offerings away from the U.S. and dissuading firms from going public at all. For small businesses, it’s really the pits.
At the same time, there are signs companies are making the adjustment-if not be grudgingly-and the financial regime is healthier as a result of Sarbanes-Oxley.
The SEC and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board are reviewing comments on proposed modifications to the law.
“While it’s a handy whipping boy, overall the law has had important positive effects. It may fairly be credited with correcting the most serious problems that beset our markets just a few years ago,” said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox at the same business conference attended by Frank.
As such, don’t count on any serious departure from Sarbanes-Oxley. Remember, Frank is still a Democrat (one with a colossal pro-consumer bent), and Cox, a Republican, would like to avoid the controversial legacy of President Bush’s first SEC chief.
No doubt cellphone carriers have factored all this into the rate base.