The audit standard, adopted this spring by the nonprofit Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, sought to streamline annual audits of internal controls used by companies to ensure their financial reports are accurate, which Congress required as part of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Critics complained the initial standard spawned extensive, costly and unnecessary testing by auditors, and called for changes before smaller firms become subject to the same requirement.

The oversight board standard requires approval of the five-member Securities and Exchange Commission, which said Monday that it will seek public comment on it until July 12, and intends to vote on the standard by July 27.

In its request for comment, the SEC raised more than a half-dozen questions, including whether the proposed standard is sufficiently clear on the extent to which auditors can use the work of others and whether it appropriately defines "materiality," a key term determining whether something is important enough to concern investors. Regulators also asked if the standard might "inappropriately discourage or restrict auditors" from scaling back work for smaller companies, and whether it will reduce costs for such audits, particularly for smaller firms.

SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins said regulators want "a real comment period" that will elicit views on hot-button concerns about the internal-controls audits.

"I want to make sure we get it right this time," Atkins told Dow Jones Newswires on Monday. "If we don't get it right, I really do think Congress will step in."

In a statement Monday, oversight board spokeswoman Colleen Brennan said, "Internal control over financial reporting is vitally important to American businesses and their investors, and everyone wants to get it right."