Administration seeks a nearly 11% budget hike for SEC

President Barack Obama has proposed another spending increase for the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the budget plan he released today, Mr. Obama proposed a $1.24 billion budget for the SEC in fiscal 2011, which begins Oct. 1, 2010. That would mark a 10.7% increase from the estimated $1.12 billion the SEC will spend this fiscal year. The agency spent $966 million for fiscal year 2009, which ended last September. Although the proposed increase by President Obama has been painted as a departure from the deregulation push of George W. Bush's administration, SEC budgets under President Bush exploded in 2003 after the Enron and Worldcom scandals, and have continued to grow (see chart below). If the SEC spends its estimated 2010 and 2011 budgets, the commission's outlay will have grown 154% over the prior decade. The SEC's enforcement department is the largest item in the agency's budget, taking about a third of total spending.



Commission basis: SEC budgets through the years 2002> $487,345 2003> $619,321 2004> $755,012 2005> $887,227 2006> $877,278 2007> $875,456 2008> $905,313 2009> $966,000 2010> $1,120,000 2011> $1,235,000* *estimated Source: SEC, Office of Management and Budget