As 2026 begins, the two biggest investment management regulators are short on staff and leadership. The DOGE purge has left each agency with 10%-15% fewer numbers in headcount. President Trump has also left commission seats on each vacant.
The sole remaining Democratic commissioner at the SEC, Caroline Crenshaw, left when her her term ended on January 3. That leaves the three Republican appointees running the SEC.
Law would require a fourth commissioner to come from the Democrats. (No more than three commissioners can be from the same political party. See 15 US Code 78d(a)) I would guess that President Trump would find that distasteful and likely to refrain from making that appointment.
For the past year, Commissioner Crenshaw was often the sole dissenting vote. Appointing another (or even a second) Democratic commissioner is unlikely to change the SEC approach during this term.
Over at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, there is only one Commissioner. Chairman Michael Selig will be running the CFTC solo, after acting Chairman Caroline Pham, a fellow Republican, left for the private sector.
Sources:
- Trump’s Wall Street Regulators Set to Enter Rare GOP-Only Era by Ben Miller in Bloomberg Law
- Vacant SEC, CFTC seats raise concerns over historic lack of bipartisanship by Brian Croce in Pension & Investments