15 U.S.C. § 78ee — Transaction fees

(a) Recovery of costs of annual appropriation. The SEC must collect transaction fees and assessments designed to cover the cost of the SEC's yearly congressional funding. (b) Exchange-traded securities. Each national securities exchange must pay the SEC a fee of $15 per $1,000,000 of the total dollar amount of security sales made on that exchange — not counting bonds, other debt instruments, security futures products, or narrow-based security index options. This is subject to the rate adjustments in subsection (j). (c) Off-exchange trades of exchange registered and last-sale-reported securities. Each national securities association must pay the SEC the same $15-per-$1,000,000 fee on sales its members make off-exchange, for securities that are registered on a national exchange or reported under SEC or association rules. This too is subject to subsection (j). (d) Assessments on security futures transactions. Each national securities exchange and association must pay the SEC $0.009 for each "round turn" (one purchase plus one sale) of a security future traded on the exchange or through an association member off-exchange. Starting in fiscal year 2007 and every year after, this drops to $0.0042 per round turn. (e) Dates for payments. The fees and assessments in (b), (c), and (d) are due (1) by March 15, covering transactions from the prior September 1 through December 31; and (2) by September 25, covering transactions from the prior January 1 through August 31. (f) Exemptions. The SEC may, by rule, exempt any sale or class of sales from these fees if doing so serves the public interest, treats markets and brokers/dealers equally, and helps develop a national market system. (g) Publication. The SEC must publish the fee and assessment rates for each fiscal year in the Federal Register within 30 days after Congress enacts the SEC's regular appropriation for that year, along with the estimates the rates are based on. (h) Pro rata application. The per-$1,000,000 rates apply proportionally to amounts under $1,000,000. (i) Deposit of fees. (1) Offsetting collections: fees collected under (b), (c), and (d) each fiscal year (A) get deposited and credited against the SEC's appropriation account, and (B) — except as subsection (k) allows — can't be collected beyond what an appropriations law authorizes. (2) General revenues prohibited: none of these fees, starting fiscal year 2002, may go into the Treasury's general revenue. (j) Adjustments to fee rates. (1) Annual adjustment: each fiscal year, the SEC must set, by order, a uniform adjusted rate for (b) and (c) that — applied to the SEC's baseline sales estimate for that year — is likely to bring in total fees (plus (d) assessments) equal to Congress's regular appropriation for the SEC that year. (2) Mid-year adjustment: by March 1 each fiscal year, the SEC must check whether actual sales volume from the first 5 months suggests the year's baseline estimate is likely to be off by 10 percent or more. If so, the SEC must, by March 1, reset the rates for the rest of the year so total collections still match the year's appropriation, using the same estimating method required by subsection (l), after consulting the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget. (3) Review: the SEC doesn't have to follow the standard notice-and-comment rulemaking process (section 553 of title 5) for these rate adjustments, and courts cannot review an adjusted rate. (4) Effective date: (A) an annual adjustment takes effect on the later of the start of that fiscal year or 60 days after Congress enacts that year's appropriation; (B) a mid-year adjustment takes effect April 1 of that fiscal year. (k) Lapse of appropriation. If Congress hasn't enacted a regular appropriation for the SEC by the start of a fiscal year, the SEC keeps collecting fees and assessments at the previous year's rate until 60 days after the new appropriation is enacted. (l) Baseline estimate of the aggregate dollar amount of sales. This is the SEC's estimate — made after consulting the Congressional Budget Office and Office of Management and Budget, using the projection method required by section 907 of title 2 — of the total dollar value of covered securities sales expected on exchanges and through association members off-exchange during a fiscal year. (m) Transmittal of Commission budget requests. (1) Budget required: starting fiscal year 2012, the SEC must prepare and submit a budget to the President. Whenever it sends a budget estimate or request to the President or the Office of Management and Budget, it must also send copies to the Senate and House Appropriations Committees and the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees. (2) Submission to Congress: the President must send each such budget to Congress unchanged, along with the President's own budget for the SEC. (3) Contents: the SEC's budget must include (A) an itemized list of the funds it needs to do its job, (B) an amount set aside as contingency funding for unexpected needs, and (C) which SEC activities, if any, would work well with multi-year budget authority.