The SEC is tearing down safeguards that protect investors while Wall Street pushes Congress to weaken them even further. Working people could be left carrying the risk while corporations, private funds, and Wall Street insiders collect the profits.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed allowing public companies to report financial results only twice a year instead of quarterly. Another proposal would exempt more than 80% of public companies from important requirements, including executive pay disclosures, say-on-pay votes, and auditor reviews of internal financial controls intended to protect against accounting fraud.

Other proposals would weaken longstanding safeguards around public offerings and eliminate climate-related disclosure requirements that investors need to understand financial risks.

Lawmakers are considering legislation that would expand private and shadow markets and make risky, less-transparent investments available more broadly. That means more money flowing into markets where investors have less information, more risks, and fewer protections.

Retirement accounts and public pension funds invest across our financial system. When corporations and financial firms are allowed to take greater risks behind closed doors, the consequences can fall on workers, retirees, teachers, firefighters, and other public servants who depend on those investments for their future.

We have seen what happens when speculation outruns accountability. Booming markets can turn into bubbles, including today’s rush of money into artificial intelligence, and opaque financial markets make it easier for risk to build without sufficient scrutiny. The richest investors should not get the upside while everyone else gets stuck with the crash.

Congress must use its oversight authority to push back against SEC deregulation and reject legislation that weakens disclosures, expands opaque private markets, or strips away investor protections.

Tell Congress: Stop SEC deregulation, protect retirement security, and keep Wall Street from shifting its risks onto working people.