Legislated restriction of non-audit services would seriously impact not only small accounting firms but small and midsized businesses across America, according to testimony presented to the U.S. Senate by William Balhoff, CPA, and the chair of PCPS, a membership division within the American Institute of CPAs that represents the interests of over 6,100 local and regional CPA firms.

In response to the debacle of the Enron Corp., both the Senate and the House of Representatives are working on bills that would attempt to prevent corporate financial disasters that are caused by questionable accounting. The House bill seems to be following the service restrictions that the nation’s biggest accounting firms have already committed to.

It would require firms to abstain from providing internal audits and technology implementation services to the public …

For most communities, planning for a bioterrorist attack was theoretical. The threat might have existed, but the idea that such an attack could be perpetrated against the United States was hardly given a second thought by most people.

Then came the stunning news in October, when letters containing anthrax spores were sent to Capitol Hill and buildings in Florida and New York City. Traces of the deadly microbes also were found in local government and postal locations along the East Coast. Five people died and 13 others took ill as a result of the incident. For a nation still reeling from the tragedy of Sept. 11, the anthrax attack drove home the point that everyone, everywhere was potentially vulnerable to a bioterrorist or chemical attack.

Thurston County, 3,000 miles away …