Boxer and Feinstein are still pushing hard to keep the no expense stock option scam going:
<<Senators Ask SEC to Delay Expensing Rule
mercurynews.com
Posted on Sat, Oct. 09, 2004
By Jim Puzzanghera
Mercury News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - In what may be a last-ditch attempt, a majority of U.S. senators have formally asked the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission to delay new proposed rules requiring companies to deduct the cost of stock options from their earnings.
In four separate letters since Sept. 29, a total of 51 senators have urged SEC Chairman William Donaldson to delay the new guidelines, which have been proposed by an agency he oversees, the Financial Accounting Standards Board. The rules, strongly opposed by many Silicon Valley companies, were scheduled to take effect Dec. 15.
Donaldson's office had no comment on the letters. But in an Aug. 19 letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., Donaldson said the commission would be willing to delay the new guidelines if it thought such an action were necessary.
The high-tech industry has been fighting to stop the proposal, arguing it would force many small companies to stop providing what has been a major incentive -- stock options for rank-and-file employees. They also argue there are no effective methods to determine an accurate value for stock options.
The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in July to stop the implementation of the rules, by passing a bill requiring instead that only a small portion of stock options -- those given to a company's top five executives -- be counted against company earnings.
The House-backed bill has been blocked in the Senate by banking committee chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala. Supporters are hoping to bypass his opposition by attaching the legislation as an amendment to a budget bill. But Congress is adjourning at the end of this week and postponing action on most of the federal budget until after the November elections.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., one of the main supporters of the legislation, said Friday that she still hopes to find a way to get it through the Senate. But she and other senators are also trying to get Donaldson to step in and delay the new accounting rules.
Specifically, they are asking the SEC to do a detailed study of different ways of determining the value of stock options.
``Devising an accurate valuation model is critical to our economy, the investing public, and the more than 14 million American workers who hold stock options,'' Frist wrote to Donaldson on Sept. 29. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., a senior member of the banking committee, urged the same thing in a letter dated Tuesday.
In addition, 34 Senate Republicans sent a letter Tuesday urging ``comprehensive, cross-industry field testing of various valuation proposals.'' A group of 15 Senate Democrats sent a nearly identical letter Tuesday 5 as well. It was signed by Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.>>
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