The Commodity Futures Trading Commission hasn’t reduced risks to the financial system since the financial crisis despite a 123 percent budget increase, Alabama Rep. Robert Aderholt, chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee overseeing CFTC spending, said Wednesday.
In opposing President Obama’s request to raise the commission’s budget 188 percent ($322 million) for the coming federal budget year, Aderholt took aim at the CFTC for wasteful office leases in much the same way the House Financial Services Committee chairman has directed much of his vitriol against another regulator, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for allegedly spending too much on its headquarters.
Aderholt said at a subcommittee hearing the CFTC has needlessly spent $38 million on leases in the nearly five years since the enactment of the Dodd-Frank act.
The CFTC is receiving $250 million for the current federal budget year ending September 30.
In defense of the agency, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, California’s Sam Farr, pointed out the CFTC took in $1.8 billion last year, six times as much in penalties and fines as it spent.
During the session CFTC Chairman Tim Massad said the agency expects the rise of high-frequency trading to lead to more time-intensive and complex investigations.