Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

27. Financial Regulatory Agencies · Minor

Shift SEC resources from ancillary functions to its core statutory mission

Not started

832 27. Financial Regulatory Agencies

“Ensure that SEC resources flow toward its core functions and away from ancillary and support functions or from missions that do not fall within the SEC’s statutory charge.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    The record moves the other way. The FY2027 Budget Appendix sets out the SEC's obligations by program activity, and every core statutory function shrinks between the 2025 actual and the 2027 estimate while the support line grows: Enforcement $694 million to $634 million, Examinations $500 million to $467 million, Corporation Finance $184 million to $179 million, Trading and Markets $123 million to $115 million, Investment Management $96 million to $89 million, Economic and Risk Analysis $85 million to $83 million, General Counsel $71 million to $64 million and Other Program Offices $110 million to $102 million - against Agency Direction and Administrative Support rising from $314 million to $320 million, the only line other than the Inspector General that does not fall. Total obligations drop from $2,202 million to $2,078 million and direct full-time equivalents from 4,542 to 4,177. Congress eliminated the SEC's Reserve Fund in section 30003 of Public Law 119-21, which removes a pot of money the Commission could direct itself but says nothing about the allocation the Quote asks for. No reorganization shifting staff or money from ancillary to core functions has been published. **The Commission's own Congressional Budget Justification has now been read (read-queue ticket 07, 2026-09-06) and it says the same thing more sharply, in headcount.** Its FTE-by-program table runs FY 2025 actual to FY 2027 request: Enforcement 1,302 to 1,168, Examinations 1,066 to 952, Corporation Finance 405 to 375, Trading and Markets 252 to 229, Investment Management 200 to 178, Economic and Risk Analysis 182 to 169, General Counsel 142 to 123, Other Program Offices 218 to 204 - and **Agency Direction and Administrative Support 724 to 732, the only program in the agency whose requested staffing is higher than its FY 2025 actual.** Total FTE falls from 4,542 to 4,177 and the request is "an 11 percent decrease in the agency's funding level versus requested FY 2026 levels". The Commission does not claim a shift toward core functions. What it claims is fiscal discipline: "maintaining a lean organizational structure, redeploying staff to areas of greatest need", and a request that "assumes that the SEC will begin hiring in areas that support the Administration's agenda as staff attrit the agency" - a direction set by the Administration's agenda rather than by the statutory-core test this Quote sets.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • The test the Quote sets is directional, so the readable measure is the Budget’s own program activity table rather than any single reorganization document. On that measure administration is the only growing line and the core divisions all shrink, which is the opposite of the ask. Under playbook §3b that contrary evidence belongs in the frontmatter attached to the not started event, which is where it is.
  • Adjacent action that does not move the ask. The Commission’s Modernization of Delegations of Authority to Commission Staff (final rule, 2026-07-20, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/07/20/2026-14540/modernization-of-delegations-of-authority-to-commission-staff) is described as intended “to more efficiently use the Commission’s resources”, but it moves decisions from the Commission to staff rather than moving resources between functions. Its companion changes to the Rules of Practice (2025-09-19) do the same for registration-statement effectiveness. Neither is cited as Evidence.
  • Reserve Fund. Section 30003 of Public Law 119-21 eliminated the SEC Reserve Fund; the FY2027 Appendix shows the account winding down with $3 million of balances and no receipts after 2025. #2124’s notes flag this as belonging to whichever Recommendation covers SEC funding; it is recorded here, but it is a removal of discretionary money rather than a redirection of it, so it does not raise the Status.
  • sec.gov is not a wall (read-queue ticket 07, 2026-09-06). It refuses a bare curl and a browser User-Agent — which is what the earlier passes measured — and answers 200 with full content to the full Chrome header set, the third rung of scripts/fetch-page.mjs. The FY 2027 Congressional Budget Justification is at sec.gov/files/fy-2027-congressional-budget-justification.pdf and the index is sec.gov/about/budget-performance, which the CBJ itself names.
  • The two documents agree, which is worth stating. The Budget Appendix and the Commission’s own CBJ are prepared by different offices for different audiences and give the same obligations table to the thousand; the CBJ adds the FTE table, which is the sharper measure here because it is about where people are, not only where dollars are booked. Both are cited.
Action
transfer
Object
SEC resources allocated to ancillary and non-statutory functions
ID
2146