FEATURE COMMENT • Heads We Win, Tails You Lose: The CAS Board’s Remarkable New Proposal On Accounting For The Costs Of PRB Plans
Those who were dismayed by the biased nature of the Cost Accounting Standards Board’s 1995 promulgation of amendments to CAS 412, "Composition and measurement of pension cost," and CAS 413, "Adjustment and allocation of pension cost," will be equally disappointed by the Board’s October 5, 2000 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Accounting for the Costs of Post-retirement Benefit Plans Sponsored by Government Contractors. See 65 Fed. Reg. 59504 (Oct. 5, 2000), 42 GC ¶ 398. In amending CAS 413, the Board was anxious to enable the Government to recover its "share" of contractors’ surplus pension funds. See CAS 9904.41350(c)(12). At the same time, however, the amended CAS 413 recognized the Government’s obligation to "share" in pension under-funding when, for example, a contractor closes one of its business segments. Id. Proposed CAS 419 on
