Wendy Sherman: “this has been a week of disappointment. In the effort to combat corporate crime, we heard from the President something…”

“this has been a week of disappointment. In the effort to combat corporate crime, we heard from the President something that was more of a pep talk than a policy pronouncement. He called upon us to reenact all the laws and regulations we already have and to say this time we really mean it. Let us face it. The biggest reason for crime is that under certain circumstances crime pays, and the biggest reason why circumstances arise in which people conclude that crime pays is inadequate law enforcement. That is true with grand theft auto. It is true with corporate grand theft. And unfortunately the other party for the last 6 years has been working to undermine the enforcement at the SEC. As David Ruder, a former Republican head of the SEC, said in 1995, the Republican Congress is dealing with the SEC as though it were the enemy instead of the policeman on the beat. Earlier this year, the President put forward a budget to this Congress which cut the SEC budget in real terms, allowed no increase for inflation, and cut the enforcement budget. This spring, I proposed to the Committee on Financial Services an increase in the authorization of the SEC of $120 million to focus enforcement on the financial statements filed by the thousand largest companies in America. Every Republican on our committee voted no, every Democrat voted yes, the amendment went down. It is time for us, if we are serious about dealing with securities crime, to fund the SEC.”