Sponsors (6)
The bill secures stable, inflation‑protected funding and minimum staffing to strengthen financial‑stability monitoring and independence, at the cost of reduced congressional oversight, recurring and growing budget obligations, potential diversion of OFR resources, and less managerial flexibility or broader stakeholder input.
Financial regulators, financial institutions, and the public: the bill guarantees baseline funding and minimum staffing for the Financial Stability Office and the Council, preserving year-to‑year capacity to monitor systemic financial risk and maintain continuity of operations.
Federal staff and analysts: the Office's greater statutory independence reduces the potential for political influence over research, staffing, and core functions, supporting more objective analysis.
Agency staff and operations: funding that automatically adjusts with the Employment Cost Index helps preserve purchasing power over time and makes budgets less vulnerable to inflation-driven pay and cost increases.
Taxpayers and Congress: shielding these budgets from regular appropriations review reduces congressional oversight and democratic accountability over federal spending for these entities.
Taxpayers and federal budget managers: mandated budget floors and automatic wage‑index increases create a recurring, growing fiscal obligation that reduces flexibility to reallocate funds in periods of fiscal stress.
Office of Financial Research (OFR) staff and researchers: redirecting at least ~$15.3 million annually away from the OFR may shrink the OFR's available resources for its own research and programs.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires minimum annual budgets and staffing levels for the Office of Financial Research (OFR) and the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC), gives the OFR Director sole authority to set the Office’s annual budget subject to a statutory minimum that is indexed to an employment-cost measure, and shields certain OFR budget amounts from review by House and Senate appropriations committees. Also requires the OFR to transfer a minimum indexed amount each year to FSOC to fund at least 48 FTEs and Council operations.
Introduced January 16, 2026 by Bill Foster · Last progress January 16, 2026