The SEC Begins to Shake Up the PCAOB

As discussed in The PCAOB Dodges the Bullet, June-July 2025 Update, legislation to merge the PCAOB into the SEC as part of the 2025 federal budget reconciliation bill failed when the Senate Parliamentarian ruled that abolishing the PCAOB was not a proper subject for budget reconciliation under the Senate’s rules.  With a merger off the table for now, the SEC has begun to take steps to remake the PCAOB.

On July 15, SEC Chair Paul Atkins stated that he had accepted Erica Williams’s offer to resign as Chair and as a PCAOB board member, effective July 22. It appears that Chair Atkins requested Ms. Williams’s resignation. On July 21, the SEC announced that it had designated George Botic to serve as acting PCAOB chair following Chair Williams’s departure. Mr. Botic, a CPA, became a PCAOB Board member on October 25, 2023. Before joining the Board, he served as the Director of the PCAOB’s Division of Registration and Inspections.

On July 23, Chair Atkins issued a statement soliciting candidates for all five PCAOB Board positions, including the Chair. In that statement, he signaled that the SEC is likely to cut the Board’s budget and that Board member compensation may be reduced:

“*** I note that over the last several years, the PCAOB’s annual budget has increased at a rate significantly faster than that of the Commission. This increase took place over a period in which the Board’s mission did not change materially. Under the Act, the Board’s budget is subject to Commission approval. The Commission’s review of the PCAOB’s annual budget is an important element of the Commission’s oversight of the Board, and I expect that an evaluation of Board member compensation will be among the items the Commission considers in connection with its review of the Board’s 2026 budget.”

Currently, the annual salary of the PCAOB Chair is $672,676, while the other four PCAOB board members earn $546,891. For comparison, the SEC Chair’s annual salary is $225,700, and the other four Commissioners receive $207,500.

The request for Chair Williams’s resignation and the SEC’s intention to replace the remaining PCAOB members is not a surprise.  The same sort of Board-level housecleaning occurred in both the first Trump Administration and in the Biden Administration.  See SEC Removes the Chair and Plans to Clean House at the PCAOB, May-June 2021 Update.  More unusual is Chair Atkins’s warning that new Board members should not necessarily expect to receive the current $540,00-plus annual salaries. Uncertainty about Board member compensation may, of course, affect who decides to apply.  

Persons interested in appointment to the PCAOB should submit a letter discussing their qualifications and a resume to the SEC by August 25, 2025.