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Washington, D.C.—The administration’s fiscal 2014 budget proposal of $1.674 billion for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is both reasonable and needed to address critical personnel shortages in two key areas, the leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) told a Senate subcommittee today.

In testimony submitted to the Senate Financial Services Appropriations subcommittee, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said the union supports the proposal for an additional 131 positions in the Division of Enforcement. “The core of SEC’s work is in enforcement and examination; this is where the bad actors are caught and punished and the innocent protected,” the NTEU leader added.

NTEU also supports the request for 45 new positions in the Division of Risk, Strategy and Financial Innovation. Among other responsibilities, this division assists in the SEC’s efforts to identify, analyze, and respond to risks and trends, including those associated with new financial products and strategies.

Her testimony also highlighted two other important areas for the subcommittee’s attention—training and the agency’s structure. On training, she noted that the SEC’s employee training programs have fallen behind the other financial regulatory agencies where NTEU represents employees. “It needs to be brought up to par,” she said.

As to the SEC’s structure, President Kelley said there is evidence that both the public and the SEC would benefit from an increased presence in the Midwest, southwest, northwest and mid-Atlantic areas. “SEC should give serious consideration to the opening of new field offices in parts of the country that are underserved or suffer from investment fraud above the norm,” she told the subcommittee.

NTEU represents nearly 2,800 SEC employees, as well as those at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, National Credit Union Administration, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.