CAS Board Meeting

CAS Board – 58th Meeting
November 16, 2009

Chairman Lesley Field, the Acting Administrator, Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), convened the 58th meeting of the Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) Board (CASB) on November 16, 2009 at 9:00 A.M.  The meeting was held in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, 1650 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC.  CASB Members Mses. April Stephenson and Kathleen Turco, as well as Messrs. Bruce Timman and Richard Wall, were present.  Also in attendance were Messrs. Raymond Wong, CASB Director; Eric Shipley, CASB Staff (attending via teleconference); and Steven Aitken, OMB Deputy General Counsel.

Agenda Items:

Administrative Matters

Ms. Field briefed the CASB on the November 10, 2009 confirmation hearing for Mr. Daniel I. Gordon, the nominee as the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, and the status of his confirmation process.  The briefing evolved into a dialog on the expectations and concerns of the CASB Members with respect to the operations of the CASB and its interactions with OMB.  The expectations and concerns of the CASB Members will be briefed to the incoming OFPP Administrator, as the CASB Chair, when he reports for duty.

The progress of the CASB’s two statutory rulemakings (CAS pension harmonization as a result of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, and the CAS overseas exemption at 48 CFR 9903.201-1(b)(14)) were discussed.  The next step for each rulemaking is as follows:  the CAS pension harmonization rule will be published in the Federal Register as a NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rulemaking), while a Notice of Proposed Rule will be published on the CAS overseas exemption at 48 CFR 9903.201-1(b)(14) and it will be submitted as part of the CASB’s response  to Congress to provide status on the CASB’s actions on the (b)(14) overseas exemption.  CASB meetings will be scheduled to discuss the public comments to both Notices, and the CASB Staff’s proposed responses to them, once the magnitude of the public comments is known in each case.

There was a brief discussion on the status of other outstanding cases which have been held in abeyance due to the Staff workload.  The CASB agreed that the issue of whether the cost impacts arising from multiple accounting changes taking place for the "same event" can be combined into a single cost impact is of the highest priority among the outstanding non-statutory issues.  That issue is part of the case on the cost impact of cost accounting changes.  However, the CASB indicated it would not oppose separating that issue out into its own case.  The Staff will work on that issue as the highest priority non-statutory case, subject to the workload.

Class waiver request from GSA for a construction contract type

Mr. Wong briefed the CASB on a class waiver request submitted by the General Services Administration (GSA) on behalf of its real estate division, the Public Building Service (PBS), and stated that the Staff needs to discuss the waiver request further with GSA/PBS prior to providing the request for a waiver to the CASB for its consideration.

Adjournment

The CASB Chair, Ms. Field, adjourned the meeting at 11:05 A.M.

Minutes submitted by Raymond J. M. Wong, November 17, 2009.