According to information shared by Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, the House Appropriations Committee has reduced the budget requested by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the upcoming fiscal year 2025 budget bill from $25.9 billion to $20 billion. In addition, the House has included several additional provisions in the budget bill, including prohibiting the SEC from implementing or enforcing the controversial accounting guidance SAB121.
According to previous reports by Zombit, the “Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121” (SAB 121) proposed by the SEC requires financial institutions holding customer cryptocurrencies to record them as liabilities on their balance sheets. Critics of this guidance argue that it will make collaboration between banks and cryptocurrency companies very difficult.
Despite previous votes in Congress agreeing to repeal SAB 121, President Biden subsequently used his veto power to overturn Congress’s decision to “repeal SAB 121.” Now, Congress is countering the Biden administration by including the provision to “prohibit the SEC from enforcing SAB121 accounting guidance” in the budget bill.
If this budget bill is passed by Congress, the SEC will have to comply with its provisions. The terms in the budget bill will legally restrict how the SEC can use its funding, including prohibiting the use of these funds to enforce specific policies or regulations, such as SAB 121.