During a House Appropriations Committee hearing before the congressional recess, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) questioned SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins about SEC reorganization.
00:00I just want to make sure that we give you the adequate resources so you can properly do your job, sir.
00:04Chair now recognizes the ranking member for his round of questions.
00:13Now I'm on. I may be off, but on.
00:18Mr. Chairman, let me say something kindly.
00:23You've indicated you've only been there 20 days.
00:26Rarely has somebody gone on the SEC with the kind of experience and inside information about how the SEC works than yourself, with all due respect.
00:37You're not a new person on the block to this agency.
00:42Let me, I want to go to one of the chairman's questions.
00:46You're organized by statute.
00:49Do you believe you can affect a reorganization on your own, and would you have to come to Congress to do that?
00:54Uh, well, I, I, uh, we're, for example, with FinHub, we're coming to Congress to ask for reprogramming, um, of, uh, you know, of our, um, allocations and, or, our budget.
01:07Um, so I, it depends.
01:09I, uh, you know, I have to learn the ins and outs of, uh, the budget process as a commissioner.
01:15You know, I was this, that's, the budget process is vested in the chairman.
01:18And so I really didn't have any insight, uh, to that in the budget, uh, experience I have goes all the way back to the early 90s.
01:26So I'm sure that things have changed here.
01:28And so with respect to, uh, the SEC, you know, it, the, the 15 years that, uh, you know, since, uh, I was last there, Dodd-Frank came out.
01:36And so huge amounts of, uh, um, uh, processes within the, um, walls of the SEC have changed.
01:44The whistleblower system, you know, it was very robust and, uh, so that's completely new to me.
01:49So there are a lot of aspects to the job that, uh, you know, is, uh, just fascinating and I'm, uh, having fun diving into it.
01:57Well, I appreciate your recognizing that, uh, the Congress of the United States has the authority under Article I to set up agencies, uh, approve their reorganizations,
02:09and either by rescission, uh, any cuts that, um, might be made to the budget that is passed by the Congress.
02:17Uh, the budget is, after all, not, uh, uh, an advisory, uh, instrument.
02:24It is a mandatory, uh, instrument for the agency.
02:27So let me, while you were in my office, and I thank you again for visiting with my office, uh, you mentioned that you were conducting a staffing review.
02:34I asked you something about staffing at the beginning, uh, what levels of staff in the SEC needs to do in its missions.
02:42As I implied in my question, I don't think Doge had any idea what you needed.
02:47I think they had an idea they wanted to produce X numbers from the federal government, just as Musk wanted to cut $2 trillion,
02:55which, uh, of course he didn't, and I understand from my colleague that he has now decided he's going to return to the private sector
03:02and not even contribute money to campaigns anymore.
03:05I think he's been burned by what he did, um, but I don't want the American people burned by what he did.
03:11So how long do you think it will take for you to do the study as to, uh, what is needed, uh, to accomplish your current objectives?
03:21Uh, well, we're working on it, um, starting, and so I, I, I don't have any idea, but it's, I don't think,
03:28I think here in the next few months as the, the, uh, budget process rolls out, we will be prepared to do it.
03:34Um, you know, the, I think, uh, the, from what I understand from our, uh, uh, major, uh, divisions that, uh, you know,
03:41they have, uh, the, uh, people necessary to do what, uh, you know, to accomplish what they need to do.
03:47And so, but, um, you know, I intend to look into that.
03:50Mr. Atkins, I think I recall in, in reading your testimony,
03:54that, uh, you indicated part of that is to decide whether or not people were let go
03:59whose services you needed and either to hire them back or to hire somebody to do those services.
04:05Is that accurate?
04:07Or promote people from within, uh, because there's a lot of, uh, a lot of, uh, good people at the SEC.
04:13And, um, and, uh, for them to be promoted and to be recognized for their expertise, I think, is, is great.
04:19It's a great way of, of, uh, you know, rejuvenating, uh, an agency.
04:24So I think it's a positive.
04:25In your study, uh, I, I would appreciate if you include, uh, whether or not people were removed
04:32who in retrospect should not have been removed because their services were critically important.
04:38And, uh, when you say with all due respect, uh, Mr. Chairman, I don't think much of this was voluntary.
04:45I have 77,000 federal employees who work, uh, uh, for the federal government,
04:51who live in my district, the largest in the country.
04:55The overwhelming majority of them thought that was, they had no options.
04:59They were either going to take, uh, the Vera, uh, they were going to get riffed,
05:05or they were going to get fired.
05:06And that kind of alternative to perceive that as voluntary, I think, frankly, is, uh, uh,
05:13somewhat Pollyannish, with all due respect.
05:16Uh, I think your, your employees and the employees of the federal government have been treated very,
05:22very poorly, very inhumanely, uh, causing great trauma, which, by the way, Mr. Vogt said he wanted to do.
05:32He is quoted as saying, I want to, Mr. Chairman, if you'd just give me a little leeway.
05:37We had a second round of five minutes.
05:39Uh, you know, this isn't a question.
05:41This is sort of a lecture on a poor man who's been there for 20 years,
05:43with all due respect to my dear friend.
05:45Uh, continuing for just a, a minute.
05:49I hope you will bring to leadership as chairman a sensitivity, which Mr. Musk and his minions did not
05:58bring to their role. They fired people to get numbers, not to get efficiency.
