I thought the picks for Securities and Exchange Commissioner would fly through the confirmation process. I was clearly wrong and Congress is even more dysfunctional than I thought.
The SEC is now down to just three members after two left the agency late last year. President Obama nominated Lisa Fairfax, a Democrat, and Hester Peirce, a Republican, to fill the vacancies. Each side of the political divide would likely find one acceptable and accept the other as part of a package.
The discussion about the nominees was held in executive session so we don’t know exactly what was said.
Many groups have urged the SEC to adopt a rule requiring public companies to disclose political donations to nonprofit groups that can spend unlimited amounts of money on political advocacy and advertising. Direct corporate contributions to candidates and party committees already are disclosed. Personally, I don’t see how that affects the SEC missions to protect consumers and have healthy capital markets. The argument is that shareholders should know which political candidates or causes are receiving their money.
Four Senators are holding up the nomination based on this issue. Charles Schumer of New York and Robert Menendez of New Jersey, said they would oppose the SEC picks. They are joined by Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon.
The four Senators feel that the nominees don’t have sufficient belief in further regulating campaign spending by public companies. It will be curious how this should be handled since the 2016 spending bill explicitly denied the SEC the funds to issue or implement this rule.
Sources:
- SEC Picks in Jeopardy as Some Democrats Revolt by Andrew Ackerman in the Wall Street Journal
- SEC Commissioner Nominees: Political Spending Disclosure Throws a Wrench by Broc Romanek in TheCorporateCounsel.NET
- Executive Session to vote on Nominations from the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.
- Democrats block SEC nominees over political money fight by Andrew Taylor and Marcy Gordon in the Washington Post