WASHINGTON AP – The Obama administration has sent Congress legislation designed to protect investors by bolstering the authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The proposal unveiled Friday is part of the sweeping plan for overhauling the U.S. financial rule book that the administration is pressing lawmakers to enact to help avert another meltdown. It seeks to put investment advisers providing services to retail investors and stockbrokers under the same standards of conduct, and to strengthen rules governing the timing and quality of disclosures by investment funds.