Obama: More Wall Street regulators needed
President Obama said Tuesday that new Wall Street regulations are working, but a key enforcement agency needs more money from Congress.
"They need the the resources and the regulators to finish the job," Obama said in nominating former U.S. Treasury official Timothy Massad to be chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The agency -- designed to prevent the abuse of financial instruments that led to the 2008 financial crisis -- has had to drop cases because of budget cuts and a lack of resources, Obama said.
"Ever since we passed Wall Street reform," he said, "its opponents have tried to starve funding for the agencies responsible for carrying it out."
Over the past three years, Massad has overseen the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the bank rescue plan.
If confirmed by the Senate, Massad would replace Gary Gensler, whose term at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission expires in January.