FEI member Gary R. Kabureck, vice chairman of FEI's Committee on Corporate Reporting, and vice president, chief accounting officer for Xerox Corp, testified on behalf of FEI at a congressional hearing earlier this week on Accounting and Auditing Oversight: Pending Proposals and Emerging Issues.

The hearing, sponsored by the House Financial Services Committee's Subcommitee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises, heard testimony from two panels: the chairmen of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, Governmental Accounting Standards Board and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and the chief accountant of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and a panel including FEI's Kabureck, AICPA President and CEO Barry Melancon, Tom Quaadman, of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Joe Carcello, a professor at the University of Tennessee and a member of the PCAOB's Standing Advisory Group. 

See Kabureck's testimony. Links to other panelists' testimony, a link to the archived webcast of the hearing, as well as a link to a draft bill under consideration that would potentially block PCAOB from requiring mandatory auditor rotation can be found on the hearing Web page. The draft bill, sponsored by Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) would prohibit PCAOB from issuing a rule requiring mandatory auditor rotation (mandatory rotation of a company's audit firm).
 
PCAOB held its own hearings last week on the mandatory audit firm rotation issue, which was raised in a PCAOB Concept Release; this issue appeared to be the main focus of this particular congressional hearing. See also CCR's comment letter to PCAOB on this issue.

IFRS
Other issues raised by the congressmen included the status of the SEC's anticipated decision on the incorporation of International Financial Reporting Standards into the U.S. financial reporting system.

SEC Chief Accountant Jim Kroeker was fairly noncommittal on the timing of any eventual commission decision, although he did say , "We anticipate publishing a final staff report in the upcoming months that will summarize our findings and observations for each of the areas of the [SEC] Work Plan [re: the consideration of IFRS]."

He also noted that the commission's Feb. 2010 statement in support of FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board's ongoing convergence efforts "directed the [SEC] staff to execute a Work Plan to evaluate issues relevant to a potential commission consideration of incorporating IFRS for U.S. issuers."

Separate Hearing by Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee
Taking place on the same day as the above hearing, was a second hearing that delved into accounting matters, specifically relating to the fall of MF Global Holdings. This hearing, convened by the House Financial Services Commitee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, featured FASB Technical Director Susan Cosper among those testifying.

Cosper's testimony related to accounting for repurchase agreements (repos), including FASB's recent decision to add a new project to its agenda on repos (accounting and disclosure issues related thereto).