Top Highlights

• The bill from the House Committee on Appropriations outlines funding for government agencies through September 2025, and for Wall Street’s top regulator, it comes with several strings attached.
• While slashing the SEC’s annual budget by nearly $145 million, the bill also prohibits the SEC from implementing or enforcing Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) 121.
• Lawmakers in the House and Senate recently passed a bill erasing the SEC’s rule—with votes in both chambers of Congress drawing bipartisan support. However, the measure was later vetoed by President Joe Biden, as his administration had promised to do.
• Though advocates of overturning SAB 121 would need a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate to override Biden’s veto, the spending bill debated Wednesday provides an alternative means for Republican-led efforts to rein in the SEC.
• To temper the “aggressive” nature of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, the bill’s summary states that its funding would be limited to $644 million in the government’s coming fiscal year. The figure represents a $168 million decrease compared to a request from the Biden administration.

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