Mike Enzi: “Mr. President, some of the issues that did not come up in this bill dealt with FASB. We did something marvelous for…”

“Mr. President, some of the issues that did not come up in this bill dealt with FASB. We did something marvelous for FASB. We made sure of its independence. One way we made sure of its independence, besides citing in the law, was to make sure FASB has independent funding. They will not have to come to Congress with a budget. And they will not have to go to corporate America for funding. They will get independent funding to be able to do the job they need to do. That will inhibit us from trying to change what they are doing in setting accounting standards. I am pleased to state that we have taken a look at the things they are working on right now. They are working on four issues that are extremely important to make sure what happened with other companies will not happen again. I have to tell you, in those four things they have listed as a priority, one of them is not stock options and what to do with them. They do need to address that, but I certainly hope that Congress does not decide that what we see as a problem does supersede other problems that may have caused collapses such as Enron's. So I hope we will not get in a position of dictating now to FASB what they should be working on, and in what order, and to what degree, or, worse yet, just going ahead and passing accounting standards on our own.”