The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) sets accounting standards for the federal government. FASAB was created in 1990, in a “Memorandum of Understanding” among the Secretary Treasury, Director of OMB, and the Comptroller General.
FASAB develops concepts and standards in a process similar to those followed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (for the private sector) and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (for state and local governments). They issue proposals, invite comments on them, deliberate, and then issue new or updated standards.
One of the projects currently underway at FASAB is the “Reporting Entity” project. This will update which organizations are to be considered in the “federal government” umbrella, and which will be required to be included in the overall consolidated financial statements.
You can view FASAB’s website for this important project here.
Here is the formal exposure draft on the reporting entity project.
You can view comment letters for the project here. Some of the commenters include the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, the Social Security Administration, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
Accounting for entities like these poses critical and exciting issues. We will have more on this in the days, weeks, and months ahead.