[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 131 (Tuesday, July 9, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32783-32784]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-14476]


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OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET

Office of Federal Procurement Policy


Cost Accounting Standards Board Meeting Agenda

AGENCY: Cost Accounting Standards Board, Office 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 July 25, 2019, and August 21, 
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: July 25, 2019, August 21, 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 meeting, including the 
meeting agenda, in the Federal Register. To date, the CAS Board has 
convened five times in FY 2019, on (i) November 24, 2018, (ii) February 
28, 2019, (iii) March 21, 2019, (iv) April 18, 2019, and (v) June 27, 
2019. Due to the lapse in appropriations, the meeting originally 
scheduled for January 24, 2019 was rescheduled to February 28, 2019. 
The Board held a brief status teleconference on January 24, 2019. The 
Notice of agenda for closed Cost Accounting Standards Board meetings, 
83 FR 59422 (November 23, 2018), provides a description of agenda items 
covered at these meetings in November as well as the meeting in 
February that was rescheduled from January. The topics discussed at the 
March and April meetings fell within the same general scope as those 
described in the November notice. The topics discussed at the June 
meeting fell within the scope as those described in this notice.
    The CAS Board is issuing this notice for public awareness of 
upcoming meetings to be held on July 25, 2019, and August 21, 2019. The 
list of agenda items for these meetings is set forth below. While CAS 
Board meetings are closed to the public, the Board welcomes comments 
and inquiries, which may be directed to the staff director using the 
contact information provided above. 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 July 25, 2019, and August 21, 
2019

    1. 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 CAS Board will continue its discussion 
of the Staff Discussion Paper (SDP) addressing conformance of CAS 411, 
Accounting for Acquisition Costs of Material and CAS 404, 
Capitalization of Tangible Assets, to GAAP. The Board will also review 
public comments received in response to the publication of the first

[[Page 32784]]

SDP on CAS-GAAP conformance. See Staff Discussion Paper on Conformance 
of the Cost Accounting Standards to Generally Accepted Accounting 
Principles (84 FR 9143, March 13, 2019). The first SDP provided a 
proposed conceptual framework and guiding principles to prioritize the 
evaluation of whether and to what extent CAS may be conformed to GAAP 
as well as 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.
    2. Review of CAS-Applicability Recommendations made by the Advisory 
Panel on Streamlining and Codifying Acquisition Regulations (the 
``section 809 Panel''). On April 30, 2019, the Office of Management and 
Budget transmitted two legislative proposals to Congress--for 
consideration in the acquisition title of the National Defense 
Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020 or as part of other 
appropriate Congressional bills--addressing certain recommendations 
made by the Section 809 Panel in volume 2 of its report. One 
legislative proposal would repeal the statutory requirement for the 
Department of Defense to manage a Defense Cost Accounting Standards 
Board. The second legislative proposal would decouple the monetary 
threshold for CAS applicability from the threshold for Truth in 
Negotiations Act applicability and increase the basic threshold for CAS 
applicability from $2 million to $15 million. These proposals were 
developed with input from the CAS Board. Copies of these proposals may 
be found on the OMB homepage at https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/NDAA-Transmittal-of-OFPP-Proposals-Summary-MPence-Entire-Leg-Pkg-Final-2.pdf (see pp. 22-32). The Board will consider 
other CAS applicability recommendations made by the section 809 Panel.
    3. Review of Court and Board Decisions Related to CAS. Section 
820(a) requires the CAS Board to review on an annual basis disputes 
before the Boards of Contract Appeals (BCAs) or Federal courts 
involving its standards to determine whether greater clarify in CAS 
could avoid such disputes. The Board will discuss recent decisions by 
the BCAs and Courts involving its standards.
    4. CAS Board Working Groups. The Board will assess the need for 
additional support on its pension harmonization working group. The 
working group has completed fact-finding for the SDP on Pension 
Adjustments for Extraordinary Events and provided recommendations to 
the Board to support promulgation of an Advanced Notice of Proposed 
Rulemaking (ANPRM) on this subject. The Board intends to simultaneously 
publish the SDP and ANPRM and reconvene the working group following 
receipt of public comments on the ANPRM. The Board will also evaluate 
the need for a dedicated working group to support ongoing work 
associated with the CAS-GAAP conformance project.

Lesley A. Field,
Acting Chair, Cost Accounting Standards Board.
[FR Doc. 2019-14476 Filed 7-8-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3110-01-P