Financial Regulator Calls Obama Budget ‘Woefully Insufficient’

The country’s top derivatives regulator is making clear that it is unhappy with President Obama’s 2015 budget proposal.

On Tuesday, Mr. Obama unveiled his spending outline for the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1 and includes a request for $280 million for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

That figure might seem an improvement on its face, since the agency is currently operating on a budget of $215 million for the 2014 fiscal year. But last year, Mr. Obama requested $315 million for the agency before receiving approval for about two-thirds of that amount.

A C.F.T.C. commissioner, Bart Chilton, called the president’s proposal “woefully insufficient” in a statement on Tuesday.

“Our staff is on its knees, some reaching for the exit doors and others already having bailed,” Mr. Chilton said.

The C.F.T.C., one of the nation’s top financial regulators, has been adjusting to its increased oversight role in the wake of the financial crisis. The Dodd-Frank Act gave the commission authority over the $300 trillion swaps market, in addition to the $40 trillion futures market it already oversaw.

“But we have not received a commensurate increase in funding to bring needed light to these markets, despite being assigned the authority to do so by Congress,” Mr. Chilton said. “We have the mandate, but not the money, to do the job.”

The size of the commission has only grown by about 10 percent since the 1990s, and now has about 640 staff members. In his statement, Mr. Chilton said that the new budget would fund “100 less employees than we need.”

Even though the president’s proposal includes about $50 million just for information technology, Mr. Chilton warned that the agency would still not be able to keep up with as much data as it needs to collect.

“I am fearful to say where, so as not to tip off market participants, but our coverage will not be as robust or comprehensive as required,” he said.

Mr. Chilton announced last year that he planned to leave the commission after nearly three decades of public service. His term as commissioner will formally conclude in December.

Mr. Obama’s budget proposal still needs to clear Congress, where he is sure to face stiff opposition from House Republicans. Representative Paul D. Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who is chairman of the House Budget Committee, issued a withering missive about the president’s proposal before it came out on Tuesday.

As part of his proposal, Mr. Obama also said he planned to ask for $1.7 billion for another top regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission. The S.E.C. currently operates with a budget of about $1.35 billion, though it sought $1.67 billion last spring.