[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 145 (Friday, October 7, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        IN SUPPORT OF H.R. 5060

 Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise in support of H.R. 5060, a 
bill which must pass before we adjourn for the recess or the Securities 
and Exchange Commission [SEC] will have to shut down. This bill is part 
of a legislative package worked out to fund the SEC for the 1995 fiscal 
year.
  Most of the SEC's funding, about $192 million, is available to the 
SEC only if further legislation is passed to authorize a level of fees 
charged to register securities that fully offsets the SEC's 
appropriation. Without this offsetting revenue, the SEC simply will not 
have most of the funding that it needs to stay in business, and will 
have no choice but to start shutting down.
  Mr. President, H.R. 5060 has now been blocked for almost a week. The 
SEC is now nearly a week into its new fiscal year without sufficient 
funding to make it through the end of this calendar year. As of today, 
the U.S. Treasury has been drained of almost $20 million--$20 million 
that has just been wasted for no good reason.
  The SEC has already had to suspend enforcement investigations and 
inspections of mutual funds and broker-dealers. The SEC plans to shut 
down its electronic filing system for companies within a few days. Tens 
of millions of investors trust the SEC to make sure that their mutual 
fund, their broker, and the securities markets themselves are honest 
and operating properly.
  The entire American economic system ultimately depends on the 
confidence on investors in the fairness of the markets. That confidence 
is being needlessly threatened right now by the unjustified delay in 
passing the SEC bill.
  The agency will have to lay off most of its work force within a few 
weeks unless the Senate acts before it adjourns. That development, if 
it were to come to pass, would amount to suspending the operation of 
the American capital markets, with economic consequences we can hardly 
imagine. I do not seriously believe this body would wish that to 
happen.
  The funding delay is already taking its toll on morale at the SEC. 
This at an agency that competes with high-paying Wall Street firms for 
the talent needed to properly oversee derivatives markets or to detect 
and prosecute insider trading.
  This bill must pass, and the delays that have already occurred are 
inflicting mounting damage on the SEC and on the confidence of the 
capital markets. I urge all of my colleagues to give their consent so 
that the Senate can take up and pass this essential measure at 
once.

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