WASHINGTON UPDATE.

This article presents several news related to accounting in the U.S. In a recent letter to all members of Congress, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) called for greater efficiency and accountability in federal financial management. The Institute, which has created a related task force chaired by Neil Tierney of Arthur Young, supports legislation and administrative action aimed at providing complete, consistent, reliable, useful and timely information that clearly reflects the unique operations of the federal government and its financial condition. Proposed and temporary regulations on interest expense allocation when applying limits on passive activity losses and credits, investment interest and personal interest are too complex and strict. The regulations, which were issued, use a tracing concept to determine whether interest expense is subject to new statutory restrictions for passive, investment and personal interest. The tracing concept characterizes interest expense by examining the debt on which the interest originates and how the proceeds were spent. INSET: WIDNER NAMED AICPA VICE-PRESIDENT.