15 U.S.C. § 78pp — Investor Advisory Committee

(a) Establishment and purpose. The SEC has an Investor Advisory Committee. The Committee's job is to advise and consult with the SEC on its regulatory priorities; on issues about securities products, trading strategies, fee structures, and how well companies disclose information; on ways to protect investors; and on ways to build investor confidence and the integrity of the securities markets. The Committee can also send the SEC findings and recommendations it thinks are appropriate, including proposals for new legislation. (b) Membership. The Committee's members are: the Investor Advocate; someone representing state securities regulators; someone representing senior citizens' interests; and between 10 and 20 members the SEC appoints from people who represent individual stock and bond investors (including mutual fund investors), represent institutional investors like pension funds and registered investment companies, understand investment issues and decisions, and have a reputation for integrity. Each appointed member serves a 4-year term. Being on the Committee doesn't make an appointed member an SEC employee or agent. (c) Leadership. From among themselves, the Committee's members elect a chair (who can't work for a company that issues securities), a vice chair (same restriction), a secretary, and an assistant secretary. Each of these elected members serves 3 years in that role. (d) Meetings. The Committee must meet at least twice a year when its chair calls a meeting, and any other time the SEC calls one. The chair must give members written notice at least two weeks before each meeting. (e) Pay and travel expenses. A Committee member who isn't a full-time federal employee can be paid, for each day spent doing Committee work, up to the daily rate of a top-level federal executive position (Level V of the Executive Schedule). While traveling away from home for Committee business, they're also entitled to travel expenses, including a daily allowance, on the same terms as other part-time federal workers. (f) Staff. The SEC must give the Committee whatever staff its chair decides are necessary to do its job. (g) SEC review. The SEC must review each finding or recommendation the Committee sends it, and every time the Committee submits one, must promptly issue a public statement assessing it and saying what action, if any, the SEC plans to take. (h) No obligation to act. Nothing in this section forces the SEC to agree with, or act on, any Committee finding or recommendation. (i) A separate federal advisory-committee law (chapter 10 of title 5) does not apply to this Committee or its work. (j) Funding. Congress may appropriate whatever money is needed for the SEC to run this Committee.