In the waning days of the current Congress, a bill intended to help public companies streamline their disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission was unanimously approved by the House of Representatives this week.
The Disclosure Modernization and Simplification Act, sponsored by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) would direct the SEC to allow issuers to submit a summary page on annual 10-K filings, provided that each item on that page cross-references (including the use of hyperlinks) that material contained elsewhere in the report. The SEC is urged to “emphasize a company by company approach that allows relevant and material information to be disseminated to investors without boilerplate language or static requirements while preserving completeness and comparability of information across registrants.”
