CAS Board Meeting

CAS Board – 56th Meeting
March 13, 2009

The CASB Director, Mr. Raymond Wong, acting on behalf of Chairman Lesley Field, the Acting Administrator, Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), convened the 56th meeting of the Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) Board (CASB) on March 13, 2009 at 9:00 A.M.  The meeting was held in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, 1650 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC.  Ms. Field attended the meeting via teleconference.  CASB Members Mses. April Stephenson and Kathleen Turco, as well as Messrs. Bruce Timman and Richard Wall, were present.  Also in attendance was Mr. Eric Shipley, CASB Staff.

Agenda Items:

CAS Pension Harmonization

Mr. Eric Shipley briefed the CASB on the draft second Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM II) prepared at the CASB’s direction.  The Staff had drafted alternative language for various elements of the draft proposed rule for the CASB’s consideration.  The CASB had a lengthy discussion on the merits of the various options presented by the Staff. 

The CASB unanimously reconfirmed the conceptual basis for CAS pension harmonization for ANPRM II.  The CASB directed the Staff to finalize the ANPRM II based on the concepts that it had approved.  Prior to final approval of the ANPRM II, the CASB directed the Staff to develop projections of the cost impact of CAS pension costs under various scenarios utilizing the draft proposed rule in ANPRM II and historical CAS pension cost trends.  The CASB wished to see the effect of the draft proposed CAS pension harmonization rule on projected CAS pension costs.

The CAS Overseas Exemption for Contracts Executed and Performed Entirely Outside of the United States (48 CFR 9903.201-1(b)(14))

Mr. Wong briefed the CASB on the draft Notice of Request for Information on the (b)(14) overseas exemption.  The CASB discussed the questions that it wanted published in the Notice.  The questions were targeted to elicit the information that the CASB needed for its rulemaking. The CASB approved the substance of the questions to be published for comments.  To ensure that the CASB would receive information from activities that would be directly affected by any change to the (b)(14) overseas exemption, the CASB directed the Staff to send letters with the substance of the Notice directly to certain agencies to request comments from them.  The Staff identified the Departments of Defense and State, and U.S. AID as the agencies with the largest dollar volume of contracts performed overseas.  Thus, they were the ones most likely to be affected by any change to the (b)(14) overseas exemption.

Adjournment

The CASB Director, Mr. Wong, adjourned the meeting at 12:00 P.M.

Minutes submitted by Raymond J. M. Wong, July 13, 2009.