Senate Parliamentarian Creates Roadblock for GOP Plan to Eliminate PCAOB

Plus Jorge Tenreiro lands at Bernstein Litowitz.

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Bruce Carton
June 24, 2025

Good morning! Here’s what’s up.

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Jorge Tenreiro, former Chief Litigation Counsel at the SEC, has joined Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann as a partner in the firm’s New York office.

Tim Treanor and Arlo Devlin-Brown, both former prosecutors in the SDNY, have launched a new law firm, Treanor Devlin Brown.

Matt Hanson, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the DOJ, has rejoined King & Spalding as a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office.

Clips ✂️

GOP Plan to Ax US Audit Board Fails With Senate Parliamentarian

A Republican plan to shutter the US audit board violates Senate rules for a fast-track budget process, Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Merkley’s office said.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that the attempt to eliminate the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board doesn’t qualify to be included in the GOP’s sweeping tax and spending bill, according to Merkley (D-Ore.). The GOP seeks to pass it through the reconciliation process, which avoids the chamber’s typical 60-vote threshold.

Republicans in the House and Senate have proposed eliminating the board and its funding while reassigning auditor oversight to the Securities and Exchange Commission …

by Bloomberg Law

👉 The WSJ further explains here that the Senate Parliamentarian found that these PCAOB-related provisions violate the Senate’s Byrd Rule “that prevents lawmakers from using the special fast-track budget reconciliation process to advance policies with fiscal effects that are merely incidental to their broader aims. The move means that 60 senators would need to vote to waive the rule to keep the provisions. Otherwise, Senate Republicans will have to remove them from the package or alter them in ways that comply.”

SEC Ends Push for Companies to Report Overseas Climate Lawsuits

The SEC has abandoned a 17-year climate disclosure initiative urging companies to report on environmental litigation from foreign governments.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on June 20 withdrew 2008 guidance that advised companies to detail lawsuits and other actions foreign nations brought against them to protect the environment.

The disclosures appeared in companies’ 10-K annual reports, where agency rules require them to report material legal proceedings. The 2008 advice, and 2025 withdrawal, are non-binding compliance and disclosure interpretations intended to aid corporate reporting.

by Bloomberg Law

UAW investment blunder cost the union an estimated $80 million, documents show

The United Auto Workers’ leadership is mired in turmoil over allegations of an investment blunder that officials say cost the union about $80 million in potential gains from its financial portfolio, according to seven UAW officials and employees and union documents reviewed by Reuters.

The investment funds were liquidated to pay striking workers in 2023 but weren’t reinvested in accordance with the union’s investment policy for more than a year, according to the documents and the UAW officials and staffers who spoke on condition of anonymity. […]

But almost none of its portfolio was invested in stocks during the year after the strike began in September 2023, according to the records reviewed by Reuters. The news agency was unable to establish why the stock investment wasn’t made.

The issue of why the union did not reinvest the funds for more than a year is now being investigated by the federal monitor which was appointed as part of a 2020 settlement between the UAW and the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve a union corruption scandal, according to a statement from a majority of UAW board members.

by Reuters

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