The American Institute of CPAs is volunteering to provide its assistance to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s recently established Crypto Task Force in light of its own efforts in the digital assets space.

The SEC created the Crypto Task Force in January, naming SEC commissioner Hester Peirce to lead the task force. The SEC promises to become much more friendly to the crypto industry under its new chairman, Paul Atkins, who was sworn in last week, than its previous leader, Gary Gensler, who had cracked down on industry abuses. Peirce asked for public input in February, and in response the AICPA submitted a comment letter in which it discussed its own work in the digital assets field and offered to serve as a resource throughout the SEC’s project.

The AICPA pointed to the Blockchain in Accounting Symposium that it hosted with its CPA.com unit in 2018 and the Digital Assets Working Group it set up in 2019 as a joint project of its Financial Reporting Executive Committee and Assurance Services Executives Committee. The working group includes an Accounting Subgroup, Auditing Subgroup and Attestation Subgroup that are developing guidance for practitioners. 

In March, the AICPA published the 2025 Criteria for Stablecoin Reporting: Specific to Asset-Backed Fiat-Pegged Tokens, and is developing further criteria for controls supporting stablecoin operations to ensure they’re reliable and trustworthy. 

“Given our extensive experience over seven years working in the digital assets and blockchain space, we are well-positioned to assist the Crypto Task Force with its objective to bring greater clarity to digital assets, offering valuable perspectives and proposing solutions to the challenges they are addressing,” Susan Coffey, the AICPA’s CEO of public accounting, wrote in response last week to the task force.

Voter discontent with President Donald Trump’s economic stewardship is sinking his popularity as he approaches the symbolic 100-day mark of his second term, ratcheting up pressure on congressional Republicans to pass his tax plan. 

A flurry of polls in recent days from NBC,  CNN, New York Times/Siena, ABC News and Fox News, among others, each reveal the same theme: Voters perceive Trump to be falling short on his core campaign promise to strengthen the economy. The president’s helter-skelter rollout of tariffs in early April sent global markets into shock.

A CNN poll released Sunday showed that just 39% of Americans approve of how Trump has steered the economy, the lowest of his two terms in the White House. An NBC News poll showed tariffs were also deeply unpopular, with just 39% of respondents agreeing with Trump’s tariffs rollout.

Early Monday, the president slammed the press for highlighting those numbers. 

“We don’t have a Free and Fair “Press” in this Country anymore. We have a Press that writes BAD STORIES, and CHEATS, BIG, ON POLLS. IT IS COMPROMISED AND CORRUPT. SAD!,” he posted to his Truth Social account. 

Trump rode the twin issues of the economy and immigration to his November election victory, sweeping each of the swing states and winning the popular vote. 

He cast his elixir for improving the economy as two-pronged, one being the tariffs that he wagers will spur a U.S. manufacturing renaissance and the other being the extension of his 2017 tax plan, but with added incentives, like no taxes on tipped wages or overtime and the ability for car buyers to deduct interest on the loans.

Republicans aim to pass the tax package through a process that wouldn’t require any Democratic votes, meaning that Trump along with House and Senate leadership has to keep the GOP members in lockstep in the face of voter angst. Crucially, posturing for the 2026 midterm elections will soon take hold.

“In terms of immediate electoral impact, no, Trump’s softening at the margins doesn’t threaten his leadership or standing within the party,” said Chris Wilson, a longtime Republican strategist. “Where it matters is in setting the broader tone for the GOP’s legislative and midterm posture.”

The U.S. economy is set to expand 1.4% in 2025 and 1.5% in 2026, according to the latest Bloomberg survey of economists, compared with 2% and 1.9% in last month’s survey. The median respondent now sees a 45% chance of a downturn in the next 12 months, up from 30% in March.

The party in power typically loses congressional seats during midterm elections and a recession would all but guarantee Republican losses in 2026 that could transfer control back to Democrats as Trump serves out the second half of his term, according to Republican strategists. 

That could also help keep Republicans united to pass the tax bill even as some factions disagree over spending and cost. Trump’s eroding poll numbers, though, could make it challenging for him to get everything that he wants in what he’s dubbed the “big beautiful bill.” Congress returns from recess on Monday. 

Trump has sought to calm markets after the initial shock of his tariffs by pausing them for 90 days while he says he is trying to reach individual deals with affected countries. He and top aides point to the prospect of reaching trade accords with other nations as a way to further ease market tensions and reassure voters. 

The president lashed out in an April 24 Truth Social post after Fox News’ polls showed him with a 38% approval rate on the economy and 33% on inflation. 

“Rupert Murdoch has told me for years that he is going to get rid of his Fox News, Trump Hating, Fake Pollster, but he has never done so. This ‘pollster’ has gotten me, and MAGA, wrong for years,” Trump wrote.

Trump’s strongest polling issue is on immigration in most polls.

Upcoming public appearances should help Trump reconnect with voters, gain energy from his base and sell his economic plan, according to people in Trump’s orbit. Trump is  set to hold a rally in Michigan on Tuesday to mark the 100-day milestone and he’s scheduled to deliver the commencement address at the University of Alabama on May 1. 

The International Sustainability Standards Board today published an exposure draft proposing amendments to IFRS S2, “Climate-related Disclosures.”

The proposed amendments provide reliefs to ease the application of requirements related to greenhouse gas emissions disclosures. It aims to make it easier for companies to apply the standards while retaining decision-useful information for investors. The exposure draft will be open for comment for 60 days and close on June 27. The amendments are slated to be finalized by the end of the year, subject to stakeholder feedback. 

“It is the role of a responsible standard-setter to listen to market feedback from the earliest implementation stages, and to support preparers in the application of our Standards,” ISSB vice-chair Sue Lloyd said in a statement. “As a market-focused standard-setter, we have taken steps to respond in a timely manner by proposing targeted amendments helping preparers where possible, without causing too much disruption and ensuring that our Standards continue to enable the provision of decision-useful information to investors.”

The proposed amendments are as follows:

• Relief from measuring and disclosing Scope 3 Category 15 GHG emissions associated with derivatives and some financial activities;
• Relief from the use of the Global Industry Classification Standard, in some circumstances, in disclosing disaggregated financed emissions information;
• Clarification on the jurisdictional relief to use a measurement method other than the Greenhouse Gas Protocol for measuring GHG emissions; and,
• Permission to use jurisdiction-required Global Warming Potential values that are not from the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The ISSB agreed to propose these amendments in January, following discussions of the Transition Implementation Group on IFRS 1 and IFRS 2 as well as the ISSB’s engagement activities. 

Entities can choose whether to apply the amendments’ reliefs, and jurisdictions can choose whether to adopt them without affecting the degree of their alignment with ISSB Standards. The reliefs would help preparers applying IFRS S2 by reducing the risk of duplicate reporting and the related costs associated with applying the standards.

“Proposing these amendments to a relatively new standard is not a decision that was taken lightly — we have carefully considered the need for such amendments and have sought to balance the needs of investors while considering cost-effectiveness for preparers,” Lloyd said. “Our due process is fundamentally important to us. We always consult our stakeholders when proposing changes to our standards and are balancing the need to respond to stakeholders’ needs on a timely basis with giving all interested parties the opportunity to participate in providing feedback by setting a 60-day comment period.”