GOP lawmakers blocked Rep. Maxine Waters’ attempts to have her user-fees bill, H.R. 1627, the Investment Adviser Examination Improvement Act of 2013, attached to H.R. 37, the package of 11 bills intended to roll back Dodd-Frank that passed the House Wednesday.
The California Democrat’s user-fees bill would allow the Securities and Exchange Commission to collect user fees from advisors to help boost the number of advisors the agency examines each year.
On the House floor late Tuesday, Waters, ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee, said that she proposed “that we find a way to pay for part of the budget of the cash-strapped SEC by imposing a user fee on investment advisers. This is a common-sense proposal that has been supported by investment advisors, investor advocates, former Republican Chairman Spencer Bachus, SEC Chair [Mary Jo] White, and the state securities regulators.”
Despite the fact that the SEC can only examine an advisor “on average once a decade,” Waters continued, “our Committee didn’t even consider this issue last Congress.”
The fees assessed on advisors under Waters’ bill would be dedicated to adding staff to the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations.