Even as the need for oversight has increased, funding for and prioritization of critical
enforcement agencies has lagged.

Today, the CFTC’s staff is virtually unchanged from the 1990’s, despite the fact that their
area of oversight—commodity futures trading—has exploded in size, and that they are
now responsible for regulating over-the-counter derivatives. Given the financial
industry’s focus on weakening derivatives regulation, this lack of funding can be seen as
a backdoor attempt to water down Dodd-Frank.

Similarly, the SEC’s regulatory role has grown dramatically, while the agency has also
been given additional responsibilities under Dodd-Frank. But the agency has been
chronically underfunded by Republicans in Congress – who propose hundreds of millions
of dollars in cuts to the agency every year – and lacks the resources to adequately
enforce laws on behalf of investors.

Immediately Double Funding for CFTC and SEC

The CFTC and SEC have been woefully underfunded in recent years. As a result, both
lack the staff and resources to police bad behavior on Wall Street. Fully funding these
two regulators is an investment that will have a large return over time—preventing the
same dangerous or fraudulent financial practices that led to the collapse of the U.S.
economy, at a of cost anywhere from $14 trillion to $22 trillion.

Governor O’Malley will:

• Double CFTC Funding from $322 million to $644 million.
• Double SEC Funding from $1.7 billion to $3.4 billion.

Elevate Focus on Economic Crimes at the Department of Justice

After the financial meltdown, the DOJ fell down on the job of prosecuting financial
institutions for breaking the law. Rather than focusing on more time-consuming
investigations and criminal prosecutions, they resorted to a fines-only approach of
cracking down on law-breaking.

To date, not one single Wall Street CEO has faced criminal prosecution. Compare this
stat to the aftermath of the 1980’s savings-and-loan scandal when hundreds of individuals
were criminally prosecuted. Changing the culture at the DOJ will start at the top, but it
should also be given the resources to investigate and prosecute financial crimes in-house.

Governor O’Malley will:

• Create a Standalone Economic Crimes Division Within DOJ. To increase the
focus on investigating and prosecuting financial crimes, Governor O’Malley will
create a Division of Economic Crimes within DOJ that is separate and co-equal to the
criminal division. The economic crimes unit should have an independent budget and
be staffed with top prosecutors and FBI agents.