According to reports, the President of the United States, Joe Biden is making plans to appoint two Securities and Exchange Commission commissioners from different political parties.
According to the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Biden is considering Democrat Jaime Lizárraga, a staffer for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Republican Mark Uyeda, counsel for the Senate Banking Committee on securities and capital markets, to fill the seats left vacant by SEC commissioners Allison Lee and Elad Roisman. Roisman left the regulatory body at the end of January, and Lee is set to leave in June when her term ends.
Lizárraga was a member of Pelosi’s staff during the preparation of legislation to address the financial crisis in 2008, and was instrumental in the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which took effect in 2010. Since January 2021, Uyeda has served as counsel on the Senate Banking Committee as a member of the SEC’s staff.
The SEC’s leadership, as one of the country’s major financial regulators, might have an impact on how the government handles the crypto and blockchain framework.
Hester Pierce, dubbed “Crypto Mom” by many, has been a strong advocate for digital assets in the US government, including advocating a safe harbor for projects.
Many lawmakers and industry executives, on the other hand, have chastised SEC head Gary Gensler for failing to provide regulatory clarity for crypto ventures that deal in securities, as well as the ambiguity surrounding the approval of a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund.
Despite the fact that only one of the five SEC commissioner seats is now open, Biden has had difficulty filling posts with important financial regulators in the United States, owing in part to Republican legislators’ opposition.
In the absence of a complete Senate vote, Jerome Powell has been functioning as chair pro tempore of the Federal Reserve since February, and the central bank currently lacks a vice chair without Fed governor Lael Brainard’s confirmation.
Sarah Bloom Raskin, Biden’s pick for Fed vice chair for supervision, withdrew her name from consideration in response to “relentless attacks by special interests.”
Economist Philip Jefferson is also awaiting a full Senate vote after Sarah Bloom Raskin, Biden’s pick for Fed vice chair for supervision, withdrew her name from consideration in response to “relentless attacks by special interests.”
