Wall Street watchdog braces for deep spending cuts in Trump's budget

New York

WHEN Wall Street bond dealmakers congregated in Las Vegas last week for their annual get-together, one group of folks was conspicuously absent: SEC enforcement officials.

For years now, they've been crashing the marquee event, trying to, somewhat awkwardly, mingle and make industry contacts while sniffing around for their next big case. But those plans were scuttled this year when word came down from SEC headquarters recently that there was no room in the budget for investigators to attend. The measure is part of a series of cuts that the enforcement department - the division responsible for policing federal securities laws - is implementing as it braces for deep spending reductions in US President Donald Trump's budget proposal, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. In addition to the ban on non-essential travel, the department has also imposed a hiring freeze and curbed the use of outside contractors who assist SEC lawyers with cases.