TheCorporateCounsel.net

Earlier this month, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins held a town hall for agency staffers in which he addressed the magnitude of the cuts resulting from the SEC’s voluntary buyout program. Chairman Atkins said that headcount had decreased by 15% since the current fiscal year began last October. He also said that at its height last year, the SEC had a total of 5,000 employees and 2,000 contractors, and that today it is down to approximately 4,200 employees and 1,700 contractors.

Chairman Atkins didn’t specify the extent to which particular offices and divisions were impacted by staff departures, but a couple of Reuters reporters did a little digging via FOIA and came up with their own numbers. According to their reporting, the Office of the Chief Counsel took the biggest hit, with nearly one in five staffers (19.5%) departing! Investment Management (16.7%), Trading and Markets (14.7%), and Enforcement (13.0%) were also hit hard. Corp Fin did relatively better, with only 8.7% of its staff opting to head for the exit.

There may be more cuts to come, because Reuters points out that DOGE has not left the building:

The SEC has been continuing its belt-tightening efforts, with more than 20 employees taken off regular duties in recent days and reassigned to full-time contract reviews to identify further possible opportunities to cut costs, principally in IT services, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, who said this was part of the SEC’s cooperation with billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

DOGE, which has been working to find cost cuts at various agencies including the SEC, has expanded its footprint at the agency’s Washington headquarters, moving from one to at least three dedicated rooms as activity ramps up, according to one of the people and a third person with knowledge of the matter.

How all of this is going to affect the SEC’s day-to-day operations remains to be seen.  In his remarks at the town hall, Chairman Atkins indicated that at least some of the vacancies created by these departures will be filled, but even so, that’s a lot of staffing losses to absorb by one of the few agencies that actually makes taxpayers money.

– John Jenkins