In separate Senate panels on Tuesday, SEC Chair Jay Clayton and DOL Secretary Alexander Acosta expressed the need for the two agencies to work together in reviewing the fiduciary rule.

In particular, the Securities and Exchange Commission plans to coordinate with the Labor Department to review and potentially revise the regulation, since the DOL’s actions are “going to affect the markets we regulate, and vice versa,” Clayton told Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.).

“It’s not separate,” Clayton said before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services during his budget request for fiscal year 2018. “It’s my intent as chairman to try and move forward and effectively deal with that in a way that is coordinated so that our Main Street investors have access to investment advice and access to investment products, and at the same time very much fulfilling our investor-protection mission.”

Parts of the rule became enforceable on June 9, while the deadline to fully comply was delayed until Jan. 1, 2018, barring any actions taken to modify the rule before then. In early June, the DOL took the first steps toward revising or rescinding the rule by soliciting public comments.

In a parallel action, Clayton issued his own request for public comments on June 1, seeking feedback on questions related to investment advice standards and the implications of moving from commission-based practices to fee-based advisory models. The mutual fund industry has yet to weigh in through comment letters as of June 22, the most recent date for which letters are posted on the SEC’s site.

Acosta, who echoed Clayton’s call for cooperation in his subcommittee testimony, said, “The SEC has important expertise, and they need to be part of the conversation.”

“It’s my hope that as the SEC also receives a full complement of commissioners that the SEC will continue to work with the Department of Labor on this issue,” he added.

Clayton requested a budget of $1.602 billion for fiscal 2018, not including an additional $485 million that would pay for tech upgrades and go toward securing a new building. His predecessor, Mary Jo White, asked for $1.781 billion for fiscal year 2017.

Despite a potentially smaller operating budget, the agency’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations will increase investment advisor exams by 5% in fiscal year 2018, Clayton said. Without mentioning details, he said “flexibility” would help inspectors reach that objective.

OCIE is already on track to increase advisor exams by 20% in fiscal year 2017, he said. Collectively, RIAs manage more than $70 trillion in assets, more than three times the level in 2001, he said.

Other SEC goals for fiscal 2018 include a sustained crackdown on retail investment fraud; continued efforts to redistribute illegally gained profits to investors through disgorgement and increasing the number of exams focused on cybersecurity, Clayton said.

Despite the smaller proposed budget, Clayton asked Congress to preserve the SEC’s reserve fund, which is funded by registrant fees and could be slashed by Trump’s federal budget. The SEC needs that money, as well as an allocation of $240 million, to update its technology systems and improve data analytics.

Those figures are modest compared to tech spending by Wall Street firms, Clayton said, citing $9.5 billion one company spent in 2016, including $3 billion on new efforts and initiatives, and another that spent $6.6 billion.

Although Clayton said he is comfortable asking for an operating budget that is $445 million less than what White sought for fiscal year 2018, he would be “pretty bummed out” if Congress approved even 1% less than what he requested.

However, Clayton requested a separate piggy bank of $245 million to secure a new building for agency headquarters, since the lease on its Washington, D.C. office will expire “in the next few years.” When deciding where to move, the agency will aim to reduce the footprint required for each employee, he said.

Since the agency began encouraging telework in 2010, SEC headquarters went from an area of 290 square feet per employee to 245 square feet, and it aims to reduce that to 230 square feet per employee over time, Clayton said.

The $245 million is kept separate to ensure that it will not be used for anything other than relocation expenses, and any money that is not used will be refunded to fee payers, Clayton said.