During a House Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) spoke about voluntary resignations at the SEC.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
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.
05:03Mr.
05:05Mr.
05:07Mr.
05:09Mr.
05:11Mr.
05:13Mr.
05:15Mr.
05:17Mr.
05:19Mr.
05:21Mr.