[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 226 (Friday, November 23, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Page 59422]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-25437]



[[Page 59422]]

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OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET


Cost Accounting Standards Board Meeting Agenda

AGENCY: Cost Accounting Standards Board, Office of Federal Procurement 
Policy, Office of Management and Budget.

ACTION: Notice of agenda for closed Cost Accounting Standards Board 
meetings.

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SUMMARY: The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), Cost 
Accounting Standards Board (CAS Board) is publishing this notice to 
advise the public of planned meetings on November 27, 2018 and January 
24, 2019. The notice is published pursuant to section 820(a) of the 
National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017, 
which requires the CAS Board to publish agendas of its meetings in the 
Federal Register. The meetings are closed to the public.

DATES: November 27, 2018 and January 24, 2019.

ADDRESSES: New Executive Office Building, 725 17th Street NW, 
Washington, DC 20503.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Raymond Wong, Staff Director, Cost 
Accounting Standards Board (telephone: 202-395-6805; email: 
[email protected]).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 820 amended section 1501(d) of title 
41 of the United States Code to require that the CAS Board meet at 
least quarterly and publish a notice of its meetings, including the 
meeting agenda, in the Federal Register. The CAS Board has scheduled 
meetings for Tuesday, November 27, 2018 and Thursday, January 24, 2019. 
The list of agenda items for both meetings is set forth below. In light 
of the complexity of the issues to be discussed, and the proximity of 
the two meetings, the CAS Board expects to use the same agenda for both 
sessions and is issuing this notice to provide public awareness for 
both meetings. Additional notices will be published to announce further 
CAS Board meetings in FY 2019 and beyond. The CAS Board will discuss 
its accomplishments and activities for FY 2019 in its annual report to 
Congress, which will be transmitted after the end of the fiscal year, 
in accordance with section 820(e).

Planned Agenda for CAS Board Meetings on November 27, 2018 and January 
24, 2019

    1. Review of Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) for 
Pension Adjustments for Extraordinary Events. The CAS Board intends to 
continue its review of the ANPR addressing Cost Accounting Standard 
(CAS) 412 Composition and Measurement of Pension Costs and CAS 413, 
Pension Adjustments for Extraordinary Events. The ANPR is the second 
step of a four-step process the CAS Board uses when it is considering a 
rulemaking. As the Board previously announced, this initiative is 
intended to address revisions to the treatment of extraordinary pension 
adjustments in a defined benefit pension plan (i.e., plan terminations, 
plan curtailments, and segment closings). The CAS Board issued a final 
rule on December 27, 2011 to harmonize CAS with the Pension Protection 
Act (PPA). The PPA was enacted by Congress to help ensure that promised 
pension obligations would be adequately funded to pay workers their 
promised retirement benefits. As part of the PPA, Congress instructed 
the CAS Board to ``harmonize'' its standards for measuring pension 
costs with the PPA to avoid undue hardship on contractors that could 
arise from the faster funding required by the PPA. The final rule did 
not reconcile the PPA requirements with respect to the CAS pension 
segment closing adjustment requirements and other extraordinary events. 
The ANPR, supported by a dedicated interagency working group, examines 
these extraordinary events. The CAS Board contemplates it will also 
issue a Staff Discussion Paper (SDP), the first step of the four-step 
process, addressing fact-finding that was made by the working group and 
public outreach conducted subsequent to the issuance of the 2011 final 
rule to help inform the CAS Board in its deliberations.
    2. Conformance of CAS to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles 
(GAAP). Section 820 requires the CAS Board to review and conform CAS, 
where practicable, to GAAP. The Board intends to discuss development of 
an SDP addressing conformance of CAS 404, Capitalization of Tangible 
Assets, and CAS 411, Accounting for Acquisition Costs of Material, to 
GAAP. This is the second SDP addressing CAS-GAAP conformance and will 
build on the first SDP (under final review for publication and public 
comment) that (i) lays out a proposed conceptual framework and guiding 
principles to prioritize the evaluation of whether and to what extent 
CAS may be conformed to GAAP and (ii) presents an initial comparison of 
CAS 408, Accounting for Costs of Compensated Personal Absence, and CAS 
409, Cost Accounting Standard Depreciation of Tangible Capital Assets, 
for public comment. The Board intends to receive and review public 
comment on the first SDP before publishing the second SDP.
    3. CAS Applicability Thresholds. The Advisory Panel on Streamlining 
and Codifying Acquisition Regulations, established by section 809 of 
the FY 2016 NDAA (the Panel), has issued a recommendation addressing 
potential increases in the CAS applicability thresholds. The 
recommendation appears in volume 2 of the 809 Panel's report, issued in 
June 2018. The Board will continue its discussion of the Panel's 
recommendation.
    4. Review of Section 809 Panel Recommendation on Defense Cost 
Accounting Standards Board (Defense CAS Board). The Board will discuss 
the analysis and recommendation made by the Panel (in volume 2 of its 
report) to repeal the provisions in section 820 of the FY 2017 NDAA 
that created the Defense CAS Board. See section 820(b), which amends 
title 10 by adding a new section 190.

Lesley A. Field,
Deputy Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2018-25437 Filed 11-21-18; 8:45 am]
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