4/12/11:  The 2011 budget legislation unveiled by lawmakers this morning has $38 billion in overall cuts, but the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission will receive increases over their 2010 budgets of $74 million and $34 million, respectively. This will place the SEC's budget at $1.185 billion for FY 2011.

These budgetary increases were necessary due to the fact that the SEC and the CFTC have increased responsibilities under the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory law that was passed by the last Congress. The SEC in particular added 300 new employees towards the end of FY 2010 to ramp up new regulatory activities.

For months, NTEU has been lobbying tirelessly for this increase to the SEC's budget. We are pleased that this hard work has paid off. Special thanks are owed by all SEC employees to Kurt Vorndran of NTEU's Legislative Department. In addition, thank you to Dan Barry and Cate Whiting, our Legislative Committee Co-Chairs, and also to Tom Conroy, Joel Crepea, Greg Gilman and Terry Tennant, members of our Legislative Committee this year.

The budget for 2011 generally contains large cuts in many programs. Expecially hard hit will be the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, agriculture, law enforcement and high-speed rail. Largely spared from draconian cuts were the National Endowment for the Arts, Head Start, Pell Grants, Community Development Block Grants, and FDA food safety inspections.

The Union will report further on how this latest budget news will affect SEC employees soon.