Chairman Towns Testimony Before the
House Financial Services Committee on
Legislation to Eliminate SEC FOIA Exemptions in the Wall Street Reform Act
Prepared remarks for delivery during Financial Services Committee hearing on new SEC Confidentiality Provision

WASHINGTON – Rep. Edolphus “Ed” Towns (D-NY), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, today delivered the following remarks on H.R. 6086 during the House Financial Services Committee hearing on “Legislative Proposals to Address Concerns over the SEC’s New Confidentiality Provision.” 

Chairman Towns introduced the H.R. 6086 on August 10, 2010, which strikes FOIA exemptions that were included in section 929I of the Dodd-Frank Act that allow the SEC to avoid disclosing records or other information obtained from its registered entities if the information is used for “surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities.”

The bill also clarifies that the SEC can protect sensitive records obtained under its examination authority by using an existing FOIA exemption covering records of financial institutions.  The bill provides that any entity that the SEC is responsible for regulating, supervising, or examining is a “financial institution” for purposes of FOIA Exemption 8.

H.R. 6086 is companion legislation to S. 3717 introduced by Senators Leahy, Cornyn, Kaufman, and Grassley on August 5, 2010.  Last month, more than 30 organizations wrote a letter to Chairman Towns in support of H.R. 6086.

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Documents and Links

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Testimony of Chairman Towns Before the House Financial Services Committee (September 16, 2010).