The SEC lobbied, cajoled, fought, argued and whatever else it could think of in the lead up to the passage of Dodd-Frank in an effort to achieve self-funding, the “budgetary Holy Grail” of federal agencies. For a time, it looked very much as if that goal would be achieved but an 11th hour compromise between Senate and House negotiators finalizing the legislation rejected self-funding.

No worries, though, Congress said, because Dodd-Frank would take care of the SEC's budget situation in other ways, including large increases over the next five years, a new “reserve fund” of up to $100 million the SEC could tap into for emergencies, and so on.

As shown by a Reuters article yesterday, however, anything other than self-funding means that your budget remains at the whim of an ever-changing Congress. It was reported yesterday that both the SEC and the CFTC may not be able to begin enforcing parts of Dodd-Frank because Congress has now delayed appropriating the funds necessary for its implementation.

The SEC is supposed to be receiving an 18% increase in its budget but the increases were "not included in a stopgap spending bill to fund government operations through early December that passed Congress on Wednesday." The delay could now stretch into 2011, Reuters reports. SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro recently testified that the agency needs to hire 800 new employees to enforce Dodd-Frank.

The article adds that Republicans, who widely oppose Dodd-Frank law, are poised for significant gains in the elections and could win control of Congress. If so, Republicans may try to block the SEC and the CFTC's funding increase to slow Dodd-Frank's implementation.