CII sent a letter to the Public Company Accounting Standards Board (PCAOB) August 6 commenting on its standard-setting agenda and the implications of possible semiannual SEC reporting. Drawing on CII’s membership-approved policies and prior comment letters, the letter urges the PCAOB to keep investor protection central to its work.

Republican House members led by Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) sent a letter July 17 to the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission Andrew Ferguson and the Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche expressing their support for the agencies’ investigation into Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis.

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division on August 5 withdrew a 1987 Business Review Letter that it had issued to Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) stating that the division had no intention of bringing antitrust action against the proxy advisor.

The Democratic attorneys general from 21 states and the District of Columbia sent a letter to the SEC strongly opposing the commission’s plans to rescind its 2024 climate disclosure rules. The attorneys general urge the SEC to withdraw the proposed rescission and retain the mandatory, standardized climate disclosure framework.

After the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee on June 4 voted against the commission’s proposal to end the requirement that public companies provide quarterly disclosure reports to investors, the SEC’s Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee at an August 8 meeting expressed support for the plan to permit semiannual reporting for public companies. This small business committee already had formally voted to support the change July 21.

While most of the witnesses at the Senate Banking Committee’s August 6 hearing on “Empowering Main Street by Unlocking Access to Capital” urged Congress to expand opportunities for retail investors to access private equity and crypto currency, one witness emphasized this expansion cannot take place without adequate protections and disclosure.