House Bill Proposes Boost to SEC Budget over FY 2011

12/15/2011

12/15/11: In the omnibus spending bill proposed by the House of Representatives yesterday, the SEC would receive a budget of $1.3 billion for FY 2012. This would represent a substantial increase over the approximately $1.11 billion budgeted for FY 2011. It is, however, less than the approximately $1.4 billion requested by the SEC and previously passed by Senate appropriators.

NTEU has been working hard on Capitol Hill to obtain an increase. Now it will be up to House and Senate negotiators to work out a deal on the omnibus spending bill to cover most government expenditures for FY 2012, including the SEC's budget.

In discussions with the Union in recent weeks, SEC senior management has linked passage of a budget that is over the FY 2011 level to its willingness to provide merit pay awards to employees for the rating period that ended on September 30, 2011. Management adopted a similar strategy last year, which resulted in a substantial delay in the pay raise that lasted from January 2011 to this fall.

The Union has urged the agency not to engage in pay raise delays again this year. We will continue to push for the agency to provide the raise in a timely fashion, like other federal financial regulatory agencies.