Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released this factsheet outlining the harmful impacts of the government shutdown—which Trump and Republicans initiated because of their refusal to negotiate with Democrats to protect health care for millions of Americans. This fact sheet highlights how the Trump-Republican shutdown has dismantled the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)—putting at risk America’s hard-working investors. The SEC is Wall Street’s cop on the beat with a mission to protect investors and oversee our financial markets and enforce regulations. Unfortunately, the Trump-Republican shutdown has severely hampered this important agency’s ability to protect our nation’s investors.

Since the start of the shutdown, the SEC has furloughed roughly 90% of its employees and suspended most activities, leaving only a skeletal staff to respond to emergencies.

Under the Trump-Republican shutdown, bad actors will get a free pass because the SEC is now unable to: 

• Conduct investigative work and enforcement actions against law breakers,
  
• Process and act upon whistleblower tips and information about illegal securities activity,
  
• Recoup investor losses due to fraud and abuse,
  
• Work to distribute funds to harmed investors,
  
• Timely process and oversee corporate filings and disclosures, or;
  
• Conduct routine oversight of self-regulatory organizations like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
  

If the SEC cannot do its job in holding scammers accountable, it means hardworking people will continue to lose their savings to fraud. The SEC’s inability to effectively oversee broader financial markets could also put American’s savings at risk.

This administration has made it clear that their priority is taking more money out of Americans’ pockets. That’s why they’ve prolonged this shutdown: to avoid providing affordable health care for millions of families across this country.

It's time to end this Trump-Republican shutdown to protect our nation’s investors and save affordable health care.

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