|
|
|
|
Bachus: SEC Oversight On Committee’s Agenda
WASHINGTON,
January 25, 2011 -
: Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus today made the following statement regarding a Democrat press conference on SEC funding. “The Financial Services Committee will closely examine the Dodd-Frank mandated SEC organizational reform study and the SEC’s formal budget request to identify wasteful, inefficient and outdated regulatory programs and operations to better allocate the SEC’s financial and human resources. “The SEC is currently funded at more than $1.1 billion, the Dodd Frank authorizes that to be increased to $1.5 billion for fiscal year 2012, almost identical to Chairman Schapiro’s request. Less than ten years ago the SEC's budget was approximately $400 million. While I have previously stated that Chairman Schapiro is making the SEC a more responsive agency, during the same period of increased funding, the SEC missed the Madoff and Stanford Ponzi schemes; operated a failed investment bank supervisory program that was unsuccessful in preventing the Bear Stearns and Lehman failures; and whose payroll still includes employees who appeared to have been more interested in surfing the Internet for porn leading up to the crisis than policing the financial markets for fraud. As I said last year, past experience indicates that a few investigative reporters have been more effective than the many employees at the SEC in addressing and exposing financial wrongdoing. Chairman Schapiro and I both agree the SEC could have done better, and I am committed to ensuring the Agency works more effectively in the future.” ###
|
Print version of this document
|
