type: timeline_event
The SEC approved a $362 million 2026 budget for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB)—9.4% less than the previous year. The SEC also cut the board's accounting support fee by 18.4% to $306 million, and slashed compensation for the auditor watchdog's chair and other board members by 52% and 42%, respectively.
The budget cuts came immediately after SEC Chair Paul Atkins installed new Trump-aligned leadership on the PCAOB, including industry insiders and deregulation advocates. Experts noted that the budget reduction "is part and parcel with lots of levers being pulled to say the PCAOB is going to be diluted as a regulator of public accounting firms that are auditing public companies."
The PCAOB was created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals to oversee the audits of public companies and protect investors. During its previous tenure, the board adopted several new regulations and levied record-high fines against accounting firms that failed to properly audit their clients. The new board under Trump administration appointees is expected to be far less assertive in its regulatory agenda, with the severe budget cuts further constraining its ability to conduct oversight of the accounting industry.