White House Budget Targets CFPB and SEC's Reserve Fund; CFTC Seeks Increase in Funding

The Trump Administration’s 2018 budget proposal seeks to restructure the CFPB and proposes to eliminate the SEC’s $50 million reserve fund, which was created by the Dodd-Frank Act. According to the budget proposal: “[T]he SEC’s mandatory Reserve Fund has come to represent an extension of the Agency’s regular appropriation rather than the emergency reserve it was intended to be. This proposal would restore SEC’s accountability by diverting Reserve Fund resources to the General Fund for deficit reduction and requiring the SEC to request any additional appropriations from the Congress.” According to news reports, the SEC has used the reserve fund to overhaul and upgrade its information technology systems. The White House budget proposal also supports $244.5 million to help pay for a new SEC headquarters if the SEC must relocate after its lease expires. The CFTC submitted a budget request (www.cftc.gov/idc/groups/public/@newsroom/documents/file/cftcbudget2018.pdf) to lawmakers, requesting $281.5 million for fiscal year 2018, an increase of $31.5 million over FY 2017. CFTC Commissioner Sharon Bowen, a Democrat, wrote in a statement that although she voted to advance the proposal, she did not support the CFTC’s proposal because it was inadequate to support the CFTC’s funding needs. The White House budget proposal seeks to limit the CFPB’s mandatory funding in 2018 and provide discretionary appropriations to fund the agency beginning in 2019. The cuts at the CFPB would reduce the federal deficit by $145 million in FY 2018, according to the White House proposal.