FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                             2000-123



 AGENDA FOR PUBLIC HEARINGS ON PROPOSED AUDITOR INDEPENDENCE
                            RULES
                              
                              
     Washington, DC, September 5, 2000 - Today the
Commission released the following agenda for public hearings
on proposed auditor independence rules to be held in New
York City on September 13, 2000:

       8:45 am: Opening Remarks

                MORNING SESSION

       9:00 am: PANEL 1

               Laurence H. Meyer, Governor
               Board of Governors of the Federal
               Reserve System

               Paul A. Volcker, Former Chairman
               Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
               System

       9:30 am: PANEL 2
               
               David A. Brown, Chairman
               Ontario Securities Commission
               
               John C. Whitehead, Retired Chairman
               Goldman Sachs & Co.
          
      10:00 am: PANEL 3
          
               Gary M. Pfeiffer, Chief Financial Officer
               E. I. Du Pont De Nemours and Company

               Judy Lewent, Senior Vice President & Chief
               Financial Officer
               Merck & Co., Inc.

      10:30 am: PANEL 4

               George Kim Johnson, General Counsel
               Public Employees' Retirement Association of
               Colorado

               Kayla J. Gillan, General Counsel
               California Public Employees' Retirement
               System
               
               Alan P. Cleveland, Special Legal Counsel
               New Hampshire Retirement System
               
               Ralph Whitworth, Managing Member
               Relational Investors, LLC

     11:30 am: PANEL 5
     
               Jo Ann Golden, Vice President
               New York Society of Certified Public
               Accountants
     
               Dennis Paul Spackman, Chairman
               David Costello, President and Chief
               Executive Officer
               National Association of State Boards of
               Accountancy
     
               William G. Bishop, III, President, Institute
               of Internal Auditors
               Jacqueline K. Wagner, Comptroller, General
               Motors Corporation
               [Representing Institute of Internal
               Auditors]
     
      12:15 pm: Lunch Break
     
              AFTERNOON SESSION
     
       1:00 pm: PANEL 1
          
               Tom Gardner, Co-Founder
               The Motley Fool, Inc.
               
               Bernard Blum
               Blum Shapiro Financial Services Inc.
               [Representing Financial Planning
               Association]
               
       1:30 pm: PANEL 2
          
               Domenick J. Esposito, Chief Executive
               Officer
               Grant Thornton LLP
     
               Thomas S. Goodkind
               Formerly with Arthur Andersen & Co.
     
       2:00 pm: PANEL 3

               Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney
               County of New York
     
       2:15 pm  PANEL 4

               Jay W. Eisenhofer
               Grant & Eisenhofer, P.A.
               
               Charles R. Drott
     
       2:45 pm PANEL 5
     
               Stephen G. Butler, Chairman
               KPMG LLP

               Robert K. Elliott, Chairman
               Barry Melancon, President and Chief Executive
               Officer
               Harold L. Monk, Jr., Chairman of the PCPS
               Executive Committee
               Gordon A. Viere, Chairman of the Practice Group B
               Advisory Committee
               Gary S. Shamis, Chairman of the PCPS Management of
               an Accounting Practice Committee
               [Representing the American Institute of Certified
               Public Accountants]

       3:15 pm: PANEL 6
               
               Robert Fox
               New York State Board for Public Accountancy
               
               Larry Gelfond
               Colorado Accountancy Board

               Baxter Rice
               California State Board of Accountancy
               
               Anne Ross
               Robert Wilkes
               South Carolina Accountancy Board

       4:15 pm: Break

       4:30 pm: PANEL 7
     
               Graham Ward, President
               The Institute of Chartered Accountants in
               England and Wales

               Elise Neils, Director
               Brand Finance plc

       5:00 pm: PANEL 8

               Thomas C. DeFazio, Executive Vice President & Chief
               Financial Officer
               VirtualCom Incorporated

               Richard J. Stegemeier, Chairman Emeritus of the
               Board of Directors
               UnoCal Corporation

       5:30 pm: PANEL 9
     
               Daniel Dustin
               New York State Education Department

               Rajib Doogar, Visiting Assistant Professor
               Department of Accountancy
               University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana
               
               David Dasgupta
               Former AICPA Official
               
      6:15 pm: Conclusion



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