"Why wouldn't you doctor something as major as this?" Hirschmann said. "Did regulators really intend for companies to put off buying IT systems? Did they really intend to create an environment in which companies are putting off acquisitions in the fourth quarter?"
Officials at Fidelity, which is fighting the SEC's mutual funds chairman rule and a separate proposal to alter the way stock market trades are conducted, said the regulatory pendulum has swung too far and swept up companies that have a clean record.
 
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"There's always been a healthy balance between what the government compels and what the market allows," Fidelity general counsel Eric D. Roiter said in an interview last year. "We saw that balance was getting off-kilter."
Representatives at the Consumer Federation of America and the labor group AFL-CIO, which strongly supported the law and other recent measures designed to give shareholders more power or to prevent fraud, say they are girding to fight any efforts at rolling back changes this year.
For now, several key lawmakers, including Oxley, say that the chances of formally revisiting the massive law in its entirety are low. Jesse Jacobs, a spokesman for Sarbanes, said that opponents of other controversial business reforms, including legislation passed after the savings and loan crisis, never successfully introduced technical corrections.
"We believe the problem is not with the law," Jacobs said. "It's with the implementation. The SEC and the accounting oversight board have been more than willing to sit down and listen to concerns."
The SEC already has budged, extending deadlines for complying with the new rules on financial safeguards after a torrent of business complaints. And there could be more concessions to come. SEC officials announced two weeks ago they had formed an advisory committee to examine how small businesses disproportionately may bear costs of the changes. The panel will forward its recommendations about rule changes to the agency, and possibly onto Congress, this year.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) said in an interview that he supports the mission of Sarbanes-Oxley, but that he would continue to hold oversight hearings to learn how well the law is working. If fixes need to be made, Shelby said, he will work closely with the SEC and the new oversight board for audit firms.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), ranking minority member of the House Financial Services Committee, urged consumer groups and investors to remain "vigilant."
"Nothing's going to be slipped through," Frank said in an interview. "Everything will be subject to a full debate. I can guarantee people nothing will be done without full debate and vote."
