Political Payback? Lawmaker’s Bill Comes After Donations Ceased
- Garrett legislation would make cases against auditors public
- Congressman pushes transparency to ensure fair markets: aide
Representative Scott Garrett speaks during an interview in New York on May 10, 2010.
Photographer: Jonathan Fickies/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
New Jersey Republican Representative Scott Garrett has spent his legislative career trying to rein in financial regulators.
One of his regular targets has been the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, a body set up by Congress to police auditors. In 2010, Garrett refused to question the board’s acting chairman at a hearing because, he said, the system for appointing its members was unconstitutional. Two years later, at another hearing, Garrett chastised the regulator, known as the PCAOB, for “mission creep” and pursuing an activist agenda. “It’s important to remind the PCAOB it is not a policymaking entity,” he said.