> Self funding, while difficult and not applicable to all agencies, seems to inoculate regulatory capture somewhat. I would absolutely want to see statistical

> Self funding, while difficult and not applicable to all agencies, seems to inoculate regulatory capture somewhat. I would absolutely want to see statistical evidence of that before I supported it. Regulatory agencies are destroyed from within. If you tie funding to prosecution, a few corrupt appointees can cripple an agency for years. Simply by passing on a few big cases they would destroy the funding flow and lose critical employees even if they didn't intend to. If there is an external funding supply, it can be cut off but at least the agency will survive bad appointees. The US government in particular is built on checks and balances; betting everything on the agency keeping itself afloat is not balanced.