Dodd-Frank Act: Eleven Agencies' Estimates of Resources for Implementing Regulatory Reform

This testimony provides information on selected federal agencies' reported funding and staff resources associated with implementing the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) in 2010, 2011, and 2012. The recent financial crisis is considered to be the worst since the Great Depression, and data from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve) show that it resulted in the loss of trillions of dollars in household wealth. Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010 in response to the ongoing crisis, including in the legislation numerous provisions intended to strengthen oversight of insured depository institutions and nonbank financial companies and to consolidate consumer protection responsibilities that had been fragmented across multiple agencies. The Dodd-Frank Act also authorized the creation of new offices and agencies to implement the reforms. The extensive reforms and the need for new offices to implement them have raised questions about the potential costs to agencies of complying with the provisions. The testimony today focuses on (1) the agencies' funding estimates and the sources of funds associated with implementing the Dodd-Frank Act, (2) agencies' estimates of the number of new entities that will be created and the full-time equivalents (FTEs) they anticipate needing to carry out new responsibilities, and (3) challenges that the agencies faced in developing these estimates..