WASHINGTON The House Ways and Means Committee yesterday passed a stopgap bill authorizing the Securities and Exchange Commission to collect enough user fees to assure full funding for the agency in fiscal 1995.
But the committee also said it would make clear in a report to accompany the bill that if the House Appropriations Committee "fails to properly appropriate adequate funds to the SEC in future fiscal years. this committee will not be as cooperative as it has been this year."
Failure by Congress to enact the Ways and Means bill could force severe cutbacks at the SEC and affect its ability to regulate the municipal bond market, said Kathryn Fulton. the SEC's legislative affairs director. That would include the SEC's enforcement activities and oversight of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board and other self-regulatory organizations.
The Ways and Means action came after the panel objected in August to fee provisions of a spending bill that appropriated $125 million for the SEC for fiscal 1995.
The spending measure authorized the SEC to collect registration fees from issuers and underwriters of public securities to fund the remaining $180 million of the $306 million budget requested by the commission.
But the Ways and Means panel objected to the fee provision. saying the SEC collects far more in fees than is necessary to provide services covered by the levies. The committee said the fees, which are deposited in the general fund of the U.S. Treasury, thus constitute revenue measures that fall within its jurisdiction.
President Clinton last month signed the appropriations measure for the State, Justice, and Commerce departments, the judiciary, and related agencies. The measure included the $125 million SEC appropriation but omitted the fee provision.
The measure that Ways and Means approved yesterday still must clear the full House and go through the Senate. The commission's authority to collect the fees under Section 6(b) of the Securities Act of 1993 expires Oct. 1. The bill sets the fee at its current rate of 1/29 of 1% of the maximum offering price of public stocks and bonds registered by issuers and underwriters. The measure does not set the dollar amount to be collected, but it specifies that the fee revenue will offset what already has been cleared by Congress for SEC spending.
The measure is expected to be placed in an appropriations bill before final passage.
