Emerson: I can only go after small part of Dodd-Frank money

“When someone comes to me with the blanket statement that we need 2,000 new people, we have to ask why do they need that?” she said.

She said she will look to see if the SEC can pull people off of other tasks to perform the oversight called for in Dodd-Frank. 

Emerson said the Republicans on the Financial Services subcommittee met for the first time Wednesday and began searching for ways to cut government spending in the 25 independent agencies, federal courts and District of Columbia, which her committee oversees.

Emerson will soon begin calling in the inspectors general from the agencies and plans to conduct twice as many oversight hearings as were held in the past.

The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimated that enacting Dodd-Frank would increase revenues by $17.1 billion over the 2011-2015 period and by $26.9 billion over the 2011-2020 period and increase direct mandatory spending by $14.9 billion and $26.9 billion, respectively.

Emerson said she agrees with other cardinals on the Appropriations committee in hoping that some reformed form of earmarks can be brought back in the future. She said highway and water resources funding cry out for member input and some transparent way of increasing their input could be devised once the two-year moratorium on earmarks expires.