Tech Firms Press for Options Accounting Bill

High-tech firms renewed their push on the Senate on Tuesday to block an accounting rule that would force them to count stock options against profits.

Tech executives and workers met with two dozen senators who haven’t signed a bill that would block the proposed rule change by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. With Congress wrapping up business for the year and a key Senate Republican opposed to the bill, they also strategized with Senate allies about how to move the legislation forward.

“We’re finding for a lot of senators, it’s not really as predominant on their radar screens as we’d like it to be,” said Patrick W. Little, vice president and general manager of San Jose semiconductor company Xilinx Inc.

The bill the companies are pushing cleared the House in July on a 312-111 vote that sliced across party lines. It would override the board’s March proposal to force publicly traded companies to record as an expense all forms of share-based payments to employees, including stock options.

But Republican leaders in the Senate are showing no interest in putting the measure on that chamber’s agenda.