A bill that would create a new Federal Accounting Oversight Board and could ease fair value accounting rules has been introduced by two members of the US congress. Ed Perlmutter and Frank Lucas, of the House Financial Services Committee have introduced H.R. 1349, which would create a new Federal Accounting Oversight Board that would oversee the application of generally accepted accounting principles to the financial markets, WebCPA reports. Currently it is only the Securities and Exchange Commission that plays a role in how GAAP is applied to financial markets, but the new board would include the Treasury secretary, the chairmen of the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which would approve the standards set by the independent Financial Accounting Standards Board. The bill sets out a framework to review the application of current and future GAAP. Regulators would have discretion in applying accounting standards to take different types of assets and market conditions into consideration. Although the bill would not change GAAP, it would instruct the FAOB to look further beyond current accounting standards and balance sheets to consider broader financial markets and economic conditions when applying GAAP, and would create an environment for the FASB to have the 'tools and flexibility it needs to adjust GAAP for future economic conditions.'