"Sequestration" at federal agencies is scheduled to result in significant budget cuts on March 1. Reuters reports that preliminary estimates from the the White House's Office of Management and Budget show that the SEC's $1.321-billion budget could face a sequestration cut of $108 million.

The SEC, like many other agencies, has not discussed its plans should sequestration cuts occurs. In her prepared testimony today before the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, SEC Chair Elisse B. Walter made it clear that a budget cut was the last thing the SEC needed given its current responsibilities, which include implementing the Dodd-Frank Act. Walter stated that to the contrary, it is has been clear to her for some time that Dodd-Frank's "significant expansion of the SEC's jurisdiction over OTC derivatives, private fund advisers, municipal advisors, clearing agencies, and credit rating agencies, among others, could not be handled appropriately with the agency's previous resource levels without undermining the agency's other core duties." 

Walter testified that the agency needs more resources in the coming year. She asked the legislators to enact President Obama's budget request for FY 2013 of $1.566 billion, which she said would permit the agency to hire 676 additional individuals, many of whom are needed to allow the agency to "focus on enforcement, examinations, regulatory oversight, and economic and data analysis related to the [Dodd-Frank]."

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