thats a bit inflated, really. there should be a cap on how much SEC fees you can be charged per trade
The sad thing is, the SEC fee gets dumped into the Treasury, just like any other tax, and the SEC's funding is only around half of the amount generated by the fee.
You sure about that? I thought I recalled from reading the annual report (while really bored) that it's the other way around - the fees are less than the overall SEC budget.