House passes bill to extend SOX relief under JOBS Act

The House of Representatives passed a bill package on Wednesday that includes a provision known as the Fostering Innovation Act to extend for pre-revenue companies relief provided under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act. Enacted in 2012, the JOBS Act is designed to make it easier for smaller companies to access U.S. public markets.

One way the JOBS Act improves small business access to capital is by allowing "emerging" companies -- defined as companies with under $1 billion in annual gross revenues in the fiscal year prior to an IPO filing -- as many as five years to comply with Section 404(b) of Sarbanes-Oxley, which mandates external auditing of internal controls (see BioCentury, March 12, 2012)...