The Securities and Exchange Commission will be out of business if there is a government shutdown, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro warned today.
She also warned that efforts to reduce agency funding through various proposals by House Republicans will “mean fewer cops on the beat, even though fraudsters show no sign of backing off.”
In comments at a Dallas conference, Ms. Schapiro said that, “tomorrow, unlike almost every other financial regulator, we may be shut down.”
She made her remarks at the spring conference of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, being held in Dallas.
Schapiro was commenting on the fact that the White House and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Senate majority leader, are warning that talks on a budget deal are at an impasse, and that most federal employees will be off the job as of midnight if no deal is reached.
House Republicans are proposing a budget for the remainder of the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, that calls for a reduction in SEC funding.
A 10-year budget proposed Tuesday by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., would cut an additional $6.2 trillion from the federal budget and reduce the deficit by $4.4 trillion more over the next decade than would the budget proposal President Barack Obama made in February.