Anne Kelley, a longtime former SEC official who is now at Mercury Strategies, said that while the agency’s plan technically “only allows work to be done to prevent a risk of imminent harm to investors, our markets, or property,” it has some budgetary flexibility to use reserved funds.
In 2013, she said, it stayed open “for the entire 16-day shutdown period,” and in 2018, it kept its doors open for a portion of that record shutdown.
“It will be interesting to see if the SEC has the necessary funds this time and whether they decide to stay open,” Kelley said.
One silver lining of a sort: Most of the SEC’s investigations and enforcement activity will grind to a halt, apart from urgent interventions to rescue investors. That means the agency is unlikely to continue what’s been a steady enforcement drumbeat against crypto firms, giving a temporary reprieve to the companies that haven’t been targeted yet.
Source: U.S. Government Shutdown, Assuming It Doesn’t Run Long, Will Slow, Not Cripple Crypto Efforts
