Statement Summary
Chairman Hagerty’s testimony outlines the SEC’s commitment to its core mission of investor protection, capital formation, and maintaining efficient markets. He emphasizes the importance of transparency, thoughtful regulation, and tailored enforcement, particularly in the evolving landscape of crypto assets. Under his leadership, the SEC plans to enhance regulatory clarity through a dedicated Crypto Task Force, engage in comprehensive rulemaking, and ensure that all regulations facilitate rather than hinder investment. Hagerty highlights the agency’s budget request for FY 2026, the need for improved technology and infrastructure, and his intent to maintain the SEC’s regional offices. Ultimately, the SEC aims to enhance confidence in U.S. markets, protecting investors from fraud and encouraging economic investment.
Original Statement
Chairman Hagerty, Ranking Member Reed, and members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to testify today. I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our important mission on behalf of our fellow citizens, investors, and taxpayers. I also appreciate the opportunity as well to speak to some of my priorities as Chairman.
On April 22, I was sworn in by Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump; my family was by my side. I am honored by the trust and confidence that the President and the Senate placed in me to lead the SEC.
I have returned to the SEC where I was a Commissioner from 2002 to 2008. In that time, I advocated for greater transparency at the agency and emphasized robust cost-benefit analysis when considering new regulations. I also previously served on the staff of two SEC chairmen—Richard Breeden, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, and Arthur Levitt, appointed by President Bill Clinton.
With my fellow Commissioners, Congress, and SEC staff, I look forward to working to ensure that the United States is well-positioned to seize on the new excitement for investment and economic opportunity that President Trump’s leadership and pro-growth policies have inspired.
Core Mission of the SEC
First and foremost, it is a new day at the SEC. I am determined that we return to our core mission that Congress set for us more than 90 years ago.
The SEC’s three-part mission was enunciated by Congress in the Exchange Act: protecting investors; facilitating capital formation; and maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets. Investor protection is vital to our mission—holding accountable those who lie, cheat, and steal. The SEC will remain vigilant in our important role to ensure that investors have confidence to participate in the markets.
Capital formation is also at the root of what we do—fostering a direct, economical route for investors’ capital to find its way to entrepreneurs and industry to create products and services. This engine of growth employs people, helping them to work and save to achieve their dreams.
The third core part of our mission is maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets. Congress calls on the Commission to ensure that our regulations balance costs and benefits, that they do not become too burdensome by adding needless friction to the marketplace, undermining the capital formation that yields so much benefit.
During my tenure as Chairman, the SEC will not stray from this core three-part mission.
Regulatory Framework and Future Direction
My time in public service and the private sector, both earlier in my career and more recently, has allowed me to see firsthand how regulations affect markets and investors. They can stoke innovation, facilitate investment goals, and create opportunities—or burdens—on businesses’ ability to compete and serve their customers.
How we implement regulations at the SEC is crucial; it is one thing to write a regulation, quite another for it to achieve its intended goal.
Regulation should be smart, effective, and appropriately tailored within the confines of our statutory authority. It takes market experience and focused application to ensure that customers and investors of financial services firms benefit from efficient, effective, and well-designed regulation. Our goal at the SEC must be to facilitate those efforts, analyze their effectiveness, and use our enforcement power to cure and rectify wayward actions.
In short, clear rules of the road benefit all market participants. The SEC is returning rulemaking to regular order. Our comment periods will not be artificially short, and the public will have ample time to provide feedback.
Strategic Initiatives and Team Structure
I am grateful to Commissioner Mark Uyeda for his stewardship of the agency as acting Chairman of the SEC from January to April, a very productive three months.
As we look ahead, I am confident in the direction of our work.
The SEC will focus on providing meaningful pathways for entrepreneurs to obtain the capital that they need to execute their innovative ideas and grow their companies in both the private and public markets. At the same time, investors that provide such capital must be able to continue to depend on effective enforcement against fraudulent activities.
On May 30, I submitted to Congress the agency’s fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget request. I am pleased to support President Trump’s request of $2.149 billion for SEC operations. This request reflects the focus on returning to the core mission that Congress set for the agency as well as the resource needs for the Crypto Task Force.
This budget level is flat as compared to both the FY 2025 and FY 2024 enacted funding levels.
Closing Remarks
This SEC will work to protect investors from fraud, keep politics out of how our securities laws and regulations are applied, and advance clear rules of the road that encourage investment in our economy to the benefit of all Americans.
This SEC will make every effort to ensure that the U.S. is the best and most secure place in the world to invest and do business. Americans should always have utmost confidence when investing their hard-earned dollars to save and provide for their future and the future of their families. Thank you.
The views expressed in this testimony are those of the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission or any Commissioner.
