US House Republicans are seeking to cut the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 2026 budget by 7%, while axing funds for enforcing a Biden-era rule that requires public companies to disclose cyber incidents.
A House Appropriations subcommittee voted to move forward a $23.3 billion funding plan on Monday, laying out proposed fiscal year 2026 budgets for multiple agencies including the SEC and Treasury.
The plan would see the overall budget cut by nearly 8%, or around $410 million, compared to fiscal year that ends on Sept. 30. The subcommittee’s chair, Dave Joyce, claimed the measure would help with “reining in wasteful spending.”
The move reads as the GOP’s latest bid to unwind many of the rules — including those impacting crypto made by the SEC under former President Joe Biden’s administration.
The Financial Services subcommittee voted down party lines on Monday to report the plan to the full House Appropriations Committee.
SEC budget cut 7% with spending bans under GOP plan
The plan would give the SEC just over $2.03 billion for 2026, a 7% cut — or $153.9 million less — than its budget in fiscal year 2025.
It would also slap on a range of restrictions banning what the funds can be spent on, one of which prohibits the money being used to enforce rules adopted in mid-2023 that require companies to disclose cybersecurity incidents under a strict time limit.
Under the rule, a public company and foreign private issuers must disclose a cyberattack within four days, unless it would be deemed a possible national security or public safety risk. They also must disclose their cyber risk management strategies yearly.
The proposed budget is less than what the SEC asked for last month, when the agency requested $2.149 billion to support 4,101 full-time staff.
Banking groups urged SEC to kill rule
In May, a group of banking advocacy groups asked the SEC to kill the cyber disclosure rule, arguing it had been “weaponized as an extortion method by ransomware criminals to further malicious objectives.”
The rule has impacted Coinbase, which disclosed in May that some of its customer support contractors were bribed to leak its users’ data, which saw the crypto exchange hit with a flurry of lawsuits.
Related: SEC explores Ethereum token standard for compliant securities
Coinbase said it rejected a $20 million ransom demand amid the leaks, which it estimated could cost up to $400 million in damages.
Democrats push back on Republican funding plan
The Republican-led budget plan would also restrict the SEC from using funds to collect personally identifiable information through a long-standing system to track equity and options trading activity.
Among other provisions, the funds will also be restricted from being used to make new rules governing private securities offerings.
House Appropriations Democrats said on X that the plan is a “blow to everyday Americans” that allows corporations to “skirt the law and hoard even more wealth.”
Committee Ranking member Rosa DeLauro said the plan would let “greedy corporations cheat on their taxes, poison consumers, [and] continue to scam everyday Americans out of their hard-earned money.”
Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
