Final answer:
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is the federal legislation passed in 2002 to establish higher ethical standards for public corporations and accounting firms, in the wake of scandals such as Enron, Tyco International, and WorldCom.
Step-by-step explanation:
The federal legislation passed in 2002 that sets higher ethical standards for public corporations and accounting firms is The Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This act came about as a response to a series of major accounting scandals that shook the corporate world, involving organizations such as Enron, Tyco International, and WorldCom. The purpose of Sarbanes-Oxley was to restore public confidence in financial information released by publicly traded companies and to protect investors from accounting fraud.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act deals with bribery and accounting transparency provisions under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Glass-Steagall Act (now mostly repealed) was related to the separation of commercial and investment banking, and the Freedom of Information Act serves as a means for citizens to access governmental records.