Tucked into the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
1 passed over a presidential veto on January 1, 2021,
2 on page 1,238 of the 1,480-page bill, was a modification to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act)
3 that constitutes a response to a couple of recent Supreme Court cases that had limited the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) ability to obtain disgorgement from defendants in enforcement actions. Prior to the NDAA, the SEC did not have explicit statutory authority to obtain disgorgement from securities law violators; instead, federal courts have conferred such authority in a patchwork of cases over the past 50 years. In the NDAA, Congress modified a section of the Exchange Act that sets out the remedies available to the SEC in addressing violations of the securities laws