New Mexico Democratic Senator Tom Udall is expected to become the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, which oversees budgeting for the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Udall would replace Senator Frank Lautenberg, (D-N.J.), who died Monday. Lautenberg took over the post earlier this year from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

Udall’s new role isn’t likely to have an impact on the meager chances of President Obama’s request for 250 more SEC examiners to increase the frequency and the number of financial advisor exams in the next federal budget year beginning October 1.

Udall’s counterpart in the House, Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.), has said he is against increasing SEC funding.

Typically in the last several years, the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved President Obama’s request for the SEC, the House has cut it and a final figure in the middle has become the actual spending.

However with the sequester, the SEC’s budget is 5 percent less than it was in 2012.

Obama is seeking a 33 percent increase for the SEC to $1.674 billion.

Financial regulation has been a minor issue for Udall.
His only significant activity in the last two years has been co-sponsoring a bill to require the SEC to mandate the disclosure of political contributions by companies.

Calls to Udall’s press office to find whether he supports increasing the agency’s budget to add more financial advisors were not returned.