According to BusinessWeek SmallBiz’s Summer 2006 edition, the Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox has indicated that he and other SEC commissioners would rather make Sarbanes Oxley provisions work more efficiently, rather than exempting small businesses, according to an SEC spokesman. Prior to this May 17th decision, on April 23rd, a 21-person Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies had recommended to the SEC that the smallest public companies be exempted from compliance with Section 404 of the SarbOx regulations, which requires that companies complete an internal audit of controls they have already established. The advisory committee’s recommendations, if adopted, would have exempted 7,400 businesses with market capitalization under $787 million, representing 79% of public companies, but only about 6% of the total public market capitalization.