Last week, the House Financial Services Committee approved more than $1 billion in additional funds annually over five years to the SEC, which would more than double the agency’s funding. Now the Senate is moving forward with its own plan for funding the SEC that reportedly would allow the agency to fund itself based on the fees it collects.  The self-funding provision will be part of a broad financial regulatory overhaul bill to be announced this week by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

As I previously discussed in this column in September, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro and some of her fellow commissioners such as Luis Aguilar have been pushing hard for self-funding, as they believe it is the best way for the SEC to secure the resources it needs to perform its role.