A Republican lawmaker today also questioned whether Pitt is the "right" person to head the SEC.

The lawmakers called for Pitt's resignation during a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee into WorldCom Inc's 3.9 bln usd profit re-statement.

"The president of the United States needs to ask for Mr. Pitt's resignation," said Democratic Representative Jay Inslee.

"He needs to do that because this country right now needs an agent of change, not someone you to have drag kicking and screaming every time you want to regulate, in the most modest way, one of his former clients," Inlsee said.

Some lawmakers belive that the SEC has been slow to act and enforce the securities laws following the collapse of Enron Corp, the indictment of Arthur Andersen LLP and accounting scandals and investigations at Tyco International, ImClone Systems Inc, and now WorldCom.

Republican lawmakers also questioned whether Pitt, who previously represented the major accounting firms in hearings before the SEC when he was a lawyer in private practice, is the right man for the job.

Republican Representative Spencer Bachus questioned whether Pitt is the "right person" and has the needed independence to head the nation's top securities regulator.

Speaking at the hearing, Bachus said: "There cannot be any sacred cows, we have to do everything we can to effectively restore the confidence of the American people."

"I will say that there is now some question over whether he (Pitt) is the right person and this is the right time for him to be chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission," Bachus said.

"I say that as a supporter of the Bush administration, as a supporter of the job he's done, but we have to have someone heading up that agency that does not have to recuse himself in over half the cases at the Securities and Exchange Commission," Bachus stressed.

Pitt has had to recuse himself from the agency's investigations into Andersen and other entities because he formerly represented Andersen before the SEC.

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