FEI CEO's 2011 top challenges for financial executives.

• Position: Financial reporting - Financial Executives International - Chief executive officers

As has become custom in this issue, Financial Executives International's President and CEO lists key top-of-mind items for financial executives. Here's Marie N. Hollein's list (in no particular order):

* Economic Recovery and the U.S. Fiscal Outlook. Economic indicators are improving, according to FEI's latest CFO Outlook survey. But many uncertainties remain, such as the effect of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program on businesses, concerns over certain aspects of the global economy and the impact federal regulators will have on industry. Unemployment levels are still high, and though credit is available, requirements to obtain it are more stringent.

Serious mid- and long-term fiscal issues are apparent as the debt level approaches $14 trillion and the country manages a $1.4 trillion deficit. The debt and deficit were top issues during the 2010 midterm elections and will play a role in policymaking. In December, President Barack Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform issued a report highlighting recommendations to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction by 2020.

The commission's plan would cut discretionary spending, reduce tax rates and broaden the base of taxpayers, cut the Pentagon's budget and reform Social Security and Medicare. While the plan didn't garner the votes to get formally recommended to Congress, expect the report to be referenced in policy debates--the first in early February, when President Obama releases his annual budget proposal.

* Health Care Law. Health care will continue to be a critical issue as the GOP takes control of the House of Representatives and regulators add color to the legislation. Employers have already felt the effects of the law as some had to recognize an accounting charge when the tax deductibility of the Medicare Retiree Drug Subsidy was eliminated, coverage of dependent children was extended to age 26 and a restriction of annual maximum benefit limits was implemented.

That Congress will continue debating the merits of the health care reform law and its impact on more than 16 percent of the U.S. economy seems even more possible, considering that many of the freshman members of Congress were elected in the midterms with an anti-health care law platform. It's likely that one of the first acts of the new House leadership will be a largely symbolic vote to repeal the bill--with enough votes in the House to pass the repeal, but the measure would likely stall in the...