29 May Obama Nominates Two New SEC Commissioners

President Obama last week nominated two senior US Senate aides to replace one Democratic and one Republican commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission. As we know, there are 5 commissioners, two from each party and then the fifth is a chair from the party of the sitting President.

Obama chose Kara M. Stein (Democrat) and Michael S. Piwowar (Republican). Both worked on the Dodd-Frank bill which will hopefully help speed the finishing of the rulemakings under that law. Stein currently works for Senator Jack Reed (RI-D). Piwowar works as an economist on the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the SEC. It will be good to have an economist sitting up there on these issues. It’s not clear if either of these nominees were actively involved in the JOBS Act, but it did go through the Senate Banking Committee. It does appear they know each other and have worked together which is good. Plus their confirmation should go smoothly since they are being confirmed by folks who know them in the Senate.

Of course, however, this also means more delay as these two new commissioners go through their nomination hearings, get confirmed, get settled and begin to talk with Chair Mary Jo White about priorities. Let’s hope that’s a relatively short period!