1.   Management consultancy divisions of accounting firms tend to be strong on business advice and professional codes of conduct.

2.   Already the Big Five accounting firms have added legal work to the myriad of services they provide for their corporate clients outside of the United States.

3.   And a bill filed in the US Senate would prohibit accounting firms from performing both functions for a client.

4.   And the bill would ban accounting firms from providing certain consulting services to the same companies they audit.

5.   Andersen Consulting is part of Anderson Worldwide, which also owns the Andersen accounting firm.

6.   And there are indeed Democrats who have gotten large contributions from accounting firms.

7.   Andersen is the only one of the Big Six accounting firms that makes more than half its money in consulting.

8.   Any form of outside regulation would be a challenge to the long-standing practice of accounting firms policing themselves.

9.   Another step has been to engage outside accounting firms to audit the Federal Reserve Board and the twelve Reserve Banks.