House panel votes to hike pay at SEC

The House Financial Services Committee approved a bill authorizing $776 million for the Securities and Exchange Commission for fiscal year 2003 by a voice vote on Thursday.

The legislation (H.R. 3764) includes an extra $76 million to increase SEC employees' pay to equal compensation for officials at the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and other finance-related agencies.

The "pay parity" provision, which passed the committee in a separate bill last year, was added in an amendment sponsored by Committee Chairman Michael Oxley, R-Ohio.

The bill also specifies that at least $134 million go to the SEC's Division of Corporate Finance and $326 million or more to should go to the Division of Enforcement.

Rep. Brad Sherman, R-Calif., offered an amendment that would require the SEC to read all financial statements filed by the 500 largest corporations in the country, and authorized an additional $42 million for the task.

"In the past Congress has authorized it, now we should insist on it," said Sherman.

But Republicans led by Rep. Bob Barr of Georgia denounced the amendment as "redundant and duplicative," since the SEC already has the authority to examine the financial statements. They defeated Sherman's amendment.

Sherman then offered another proposal to add that it is the "sense of Congress" that the financial statements should be examined. That amendment passed on a voice vote.