U.S. legislation that would roll back securities disclosure and governance rules in the name of job creation is being attacked by consumer advocates and former regulators as an evisceration of investor protections in place since the 1930s.

The package of bills awaiting Senate action after receiving broad bipartisan support in a House vote last week would destroy safeguards dating as far back as the laws that created the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to Lynn E. Turner, a former SEC chief accountant.

"It won't create jobs, but it will simplify fraud," Turner said in an interview last week. "This would be better known as the bucket-shop and penny-stock fraud reauthorization act of 2012," he said, referring to practices banned under securities law.