Description:
H.R. 2515 would expand protections for whistleblowers seeking legal recourse under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) by prohibiting employers from retaliating against employees who report possible violations of securities laws or Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations to their supervisors. Existing protections under Dodd-Frank provide whistleblowers with legal recourse only if they are retaliated against in connection with reporting potential violations to the SEC. The SEC has taken three anti-retaliatory enforcement actions since 2010 under the current statutory framework. On that basis, CBO anticipates that any additional enforcement actions taken under the bill would be few and would not have a significant effect on the agency’s workload or costs. Moreover, because the SEC is authorized to collect fees each year to offset their annual appropriation, and assuming appropriation action consistent with that authority, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 2515 would have a negligible effect on spending subject to appropriation.
