Amendments to Rules Regarding Management's Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

We are adopting an amendment to our rules to clarify that an evaluation which complies with the Commission's interpretive guidance published in this issue of the Federal Register in Release No. 34-55929 is one way to satisfy the requirement for management to evaluate the effectiveness of the issuer's internal control over financial reporting. We are also amending our rules to define the term material weakness and to revise the requirements regarding the auditor's attestation report on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. The amendments are intended to facilitate more effective and efficient evaluations of internal control over financial reporting by management and auditors.