Section 820 of the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, Public Law 114-328, requires the Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) Board to ensure that the CAS used by Federal contractors rely, to the maximum extent practicable, on commercial standards and accounting practices and systems -- i.e., Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).  Contractors are subject to both CAS and GAAP which serve different purposes. GAAP reports the financial results of operations at the macro or corporate level, while the CAS measure, assign, and allocate costs at the micro or contract level. There are areas of commonality between CAS and GAAP. The CAS Board is preparing a series of Staff Discussion Papers (SDPs), the first step in the Board’s rulemaking process, to seek public input as it identifies the areas of CAS-GAAP commonality, with the goal of minimizing the compliance burden on both contractors and the Government. Each SDP will address one or more of the nineteen Standards, following updated guiding principles that were initially announced in the SDP published in March, which also addressed CAS 408, Accounting for costs of compensated personal absence, and 409, CAS depreciation of tangible capital assets. The Board then plans to issue Advance Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM), the second step in the Board’s rulemaking process. The ANPRM will address the public comments received in response to the SDP, and provide revised regulatory text to conform the Standard to the maximum extent practicable to GAAP.