Many blame the economic crisis on an unregulated financial industry that played fast and loose with the rules, and now the Senate is moving to clamp down on the miscreants.

The senior Democratic Senator for New York, Charles E Schumer, is leading a push for greater resources to investigate financial fraud, as current demands on federal regulators has stretched them to maximum capacity, according to the senator's office.

Schumer announced The Fighting Real Estate Fraud Act of 2009 on Monday. The act would establish a competitive grant program in the Department of Justice specifically to combat mortgage improprieties at the local level. District Attorneys who could prove they needed additional resources for these sorts of cases could compete for part of $100 million.

Joined with Alabama Republican Senator Richard Shelby on Tuesday, Schumer proposed an amendment to the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, increasing the Securities and Exchange Commission budget by $20 million.

The SEC currently employs approximately a staff of 3,800, and the Treasury Department close to 110 thousand. A study by the Partnership for Public Service, which surveyed Federal department and agency hiring needs through September 2009, found one of the major sources of new hires in the Federal Government will be in security, enforcement and compliance.