Barney Frank: “I welcome the gentleman from Louisiana's (Mr. Baker) concern for congressional prerogative and not excessive delegation.…”

“I welcome the gentleman from Louisiana's (Mr. Baker) concern for congressional prerogative and not excessive delegation. I just wish it extended to the war power and a few other trivial matters. On this particular subject, the gentlewoman's amendment is quite sensible. We have had criticism of the FASB arguing that they are going to make a decision that has broader public policy implications on grounds that are too technical. The gentlewoman's amendment gets us out of that box. And I have some sympathy with that argument because I do not think the FASB ought to go ahead, but I do not want to set the precedent of overturning the regulators. What her amendment does is to say, okay, it will not be up to the FASB, making a narrow technical accounting decision; it will be up to the Securities and Exchange Commission and specifically instructs them to take into account the public interest. In other words, it seems to me that this is what Members have been saying, that this decision obviously should not ignore accounting principles but that should be leavened by a concern for the public interest. So it is not simply a repeat of the whole bill. It does say it will not be up only to the FASB as current law would allow it, but it does say we will let the SEC make that decision.”