The SEC, like Spalding Smails in this classic scene from Caddyshack, understandably wants some things. Not “a hamburger, a cheeseburger, a hotdog” but, rather, enhanced technology, more examiners, additional experts on staff, and so on. But lately, without fail, Congress invokes its inner Judge Smails to tell the SEC the same thing each year: “You’ll get nothing and like it!”
Last year, I noted here that the House Appropriations Committee’s approved FY 2016 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill was “eerily similar to the bill Congress passed four years ago — both bills appropriate $222 million less than the SEC requested, freeze the SEC’s budget at the prior year’s level, and prohibit the SEC from drawing upon an important reserve fund.”
