The bill would enhance SEC authority dramatically by letting the agency assess higher fines, obtain bank records and serve subpoenas, said Louisiana Rep. Richard Baker, chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee on capital markets.

The measure is a follow-up to the Sarbanes-Oxley law enacted last year to crack down on corporate wrongdoers after financial scandals at Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc. and other companies, said Ohio Rep. Michael Oxley, the committee chairman.

"It's going to be a high priority of the committee," Oxley said at a news conference with Baker.

Steps that Congress is taking, among them boosting the agency's budget, "all point to a much more aggressive and active SEC" that will help restore investor confidence in the financial markets, Oxley said.

The bill would supersede laws in several states, including Florida and Texas, that allow defendants to keep their homes regardless of legal findings against them.

For instance, the lawmakers said, WorldCom's former chief financial officer, Scott Sullivan, who is charged with orchestrating fraud that drove the telephone company into bankruptcy, owns a $15 million, five-building compound in Boca Raton, Fla.

If the bill becomes law, Sullivan's mansion "would have a 'for sale by owner' sign on it, and that would be the SEC's number in Washington, D.C.," Baker said. "We'll take back the yachts, we'll get the art, and we'll distribute those assets back to the people from whom they were taken."

Baker said he drafted the bill with help from the SEC, which has asked Congress for more power to seize wrongdoers' assets.

Under the bill, the SEC could increase fines to as much as $2 million, up from the current $600,000 maximum, Baker said.

The bill also would let people, such as attorneys, give information to the SEC about company activities without having to give it to other parties, such as those involved in a lawsuit against the company.

-- Bill Arthur, Bloomberg News