WASHINGTON, D.C.— Benjamin Schiffrin, Director of Securities Policy for Better Markets, issued the following statement in connection with the vote by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to cut the budget of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) for 2026 by more than 9 percent:

“The PCAOB ensures that accounting firms do what they are supposed to do: prevent public companies from cooking their books. These firms are the first line of defense against financial misconduct at public companies. Cutting the resources of the watchdog that oversees these firms is a recipe for accounting scandals that will ultimately harm investors.

“The PCAOB was created after accounting scandals at Enron and Worldcom in the early 2000s wiped out investors’ savings and destroyed thousands of jobs. Enron cost almost 20,000 jobs, cost its shareholders about $67 billion, and cost its employees more than $2.1 billion in retirement assets. WorldCom cost its shareholders around $180 billion. The failure of these companies exposed the fact that self-regulation of the audit industry did not work. The auditors failed to catch and stop the companies’ manipulation of their financial results before they harmed investors, workers, and the broader economy. Congress created the PCAOB to prevent this from happening again. For the most part, it has been successful.

“The SEC, which exists to protect public company investors, should cheer this success. It should want the body that regulates the firms who are supposed to guard against financial misconduct at public companies to have more resources, not less. Instead, the SEC has made it harder for the PCAOB to oversee the accounting industry and prevent firms from allowing companies to get away with misconduct. It has thus prioritized the desire of the accounting industry for less oversight over the public interest. This is just one of the many ways in which the SEC has recently turned its back on public company investors.”

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Better Markets is a non-profit, non-partisan, and independent organization founded in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to promote the public interest in the financial markets, support the financial reform of Wall Street and make our financial system work for all Americans again. Better Markets works with allies—including many in finance—to promote pro-market, pro-business and pro-growth policies that help build a stronger, safer financial system that protects and promotes Americans’ jobs, savings, retirements and more. To learn more, visit www.bettermarkets.org.