Chuck Edwards To SEC Chairman: How Many Employees Partook In Trump Admin.'s 'Deferred Resignation'?

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During a House Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) spoke about voluntary resignations at the SEC.

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00:00Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Atkins, thanks for being with us this afternoon. In the

00:09fiscal year 2025, the Securities and Exchange Salaries and Expenses

00:21account was appropriated to point, let's call it $1 billion. And in your written

00:25testimony, you stated at your height a year ago, you had approximately 5,000

00:31employees plus 2,000 contractors. And that today you're at approximately 4,200

00:38employees and 1,700 contractors. That's a reduction of about 15%. Do you expect that

00:46the SEC's fiscal year 2026 request for salaries and expenses will be lower than

00:53that $2.1 billion? Well, thank you very much,

00:58Congressman, for that question. You know, the process, yeah, I was saying

01:03earlier that the budget process is new to me and so we'll be working with the,

01:10you know, assessing internally what we need and working with, you know, with you

01:16all in Congress and the administration to right size, you know, what we need. And

01:21that may be more. There are a number of things that are in the offing with respect to the,

01:26for example, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, whatever may happen there.

01:30But, you know, so it's a lot of things are, I think, left up in the air. So I don't,

01:35I can't really speak to the 26 budget. When do you think we'll know the detail of that request?

01:40Well, I don't know exactly, you know, the process just yet, but I, as we work through it,

01:50you know, I assume this summer, I am not sure what the timing is.

01:54How many SEC employees chose to partake in the Trump administration's deferred resignation,

02:01voluntary early retirement, or voluntary separation incentive payment programs?

02:06Well, we had about 600 some odd people that took part in those voluntary retirements,

02:15and so it's about 15% of the, of the head count.

02:18So the reduction that you saw was a result of the

02:22voluntary separations is what I'm hearing you say.

02:25Yes, sir.

02:26Was there a common denominator in the folks that chose to take that voluntary separation?

02:32I don't know about that. I don't, I'm not sure that we've gone to that detail or I haven't seen it.

02:40But, you know, people retire for all sorts of reasons, and some of the people who have retired,

02:46I know, and so some are living away from the Washington area and, you know, want to continue to do that.

02:54We've had other people, you know, felt that, I mean, we've, we've, longevity at the SEC is up there.

03:02I mean, the retention by this agency is, you know, higher than most.

03:07And so the way I look at a lot of this is, you know, people want to retire,

03:11and that provides a lot of opportunity for younger folks to then move up in the ranks

03:17and get more experience and, and, and cut their teeth that way.

03:20Do you, do you expect to look a bit deeper into that to find what the common denominators were?

03:26For example, you meant, you mentioned people that might live away from D.C.,

03:29folks that were approaching retirement anyway, folks that may be, have been under a performance improvement

03:35program. Is that, is, is that worthy to look at to see where the separations are coming from?

03:41Oh, I think so. But I, I would think you'd have to do a survey or, or something, obviously.

03:46That was, that was my question. Are you intending to look, look into those separations with that level

03:52of depth? Well, I think that'd be interesting, I think, and to do a sounding on that and to,

03:58because we do surveys of employees annually, whether it's done by us or, or other, you know, private

04:07sector folks who, who rank the various agencies as to employee morale and whatnot.

04:12Okay. Uh, final question in this round. What percentage of SEC office space is being utilized

04:19now that was not being utilized under the maximum telework period under the Biden administration?

04:27So I don't have that figure. I can get back to you on that one. Um, I know that, uh, you know,

04:32everybody's, we're, we're back to work, uh, in general, which is good to have people in the building.

04:38I'm not sure what it was like beforehand, obviously. It must have been very lonely there within that

04:43massive building. But, um, anyway, so I, I, I, I'm glad to have people back and, um, and, but I can,

04:49uh, get back to you on the, the space usage. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield.

04:56Thank you, Mr. Edwards. Uh, Mr. Ivey's still feeling generous. So we'll now recognize the

05:00a gentleman from Missouri, Mr.

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