I’m blogging all weekend from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers’ annual conference in Dallas.

8:45 a.m. NOW: Mary Schapiro, the top investor watchdog at the Securities and Exchange Commission, warned Friday that a looming U.S. government shutdown would “hobble” her agency at a critical time.

Schapiro said the SEC returned $2.2 billion to wronged investors a year ago, as she argued for continued congressional funding for the organization.

“The investor protection effort would be hobbled at a time when events of the past decade prove we’re more needed than ever,” Schapiro said. “There are days when I read the financial news and I feel like I’ve been transported back to 1928.”

A fully funded SEC would help the U.S. grow and prosper by improving regulations on the derivatives market, she said. The agency is currently reforming its regulatory structure to cover derivatives, which were excluded from regulations in 2000. Schapiro acknowledged the controversy of expanding regulations, but said appropriate restrictions are necessary to encourage growth as the U.S. climbs out of the worst downturn since the Great Depression.

Continuing to address federal funding concerns, she said the SEC would have to focus on its “highest risk” priorities if its budget were cut. The agency would have to scale back investigations of wrongdoing, taking those accused to court, and finding whistleblowers.

“The SEC can’t be everywhere,” Schapiro said, defending the cost of seeking whistleblowers.

Schapiro, taking questions from journalists, said she wouldn’t comment on a possible insider trading probe at Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, drawing laughs from the crowd. Last week, Buffett’s likely successor, David Sokol, resigned after buying stock in a company Berkshire later agreed to purchase.

UP NEXT: Richard Fisher, the president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, will speak.