Only one position on the panel of five SEC commissioners is open at the moment, but Allison Lee is set to resign when her term ends in June.
President Joe Biden of the United States is allegedly considering naming two Securities and Exchange Commission commissioners with varying political party affiliations.
According to a Wall Street Journal report published Wednesday, Biden is considering Democrat Jaime Lizárraga, a staffer for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Republican Mark Uyeda, counsel for the Senate Banking Committee’s securities and capital markets subcommittee, to fill the seats left vacant by SEC commissioners Allison Lee and Elad Roisman, respectively. Roisman resigned from the regulatory agency at the end of January, and Lee is set to resign in June when her tenure ends.
Lizárraga was on Pelosi’s staff during the 2008 financial crisis 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 worked as counsel to the Senate Banking Committee as a staff member of the SEC.
As one of the country’s major financial regulators, the composition of the SEC‘s leadership might have an effect on how the government manages the crypto and blockchain framework. Hester Pierce, the SEC commissioner dubbed “Crypto Mom” by many, has been a vocal advocate for digital assets in the United States government, including proposing a safe harbor for projects. In comparison, some legislators and industry executives have criticized SEC Chairman Gary Gensler for failing to provide regulatory clarity for crypto initiatives that include the sale of securities, as well as for the uncertainty surrounding the establishment of a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund.
Though just one of the five SEC commissioner seats remains open, Biden has had difficulties filling important financial regulator posts in the United States, in part owing to pressure from Republican legislators. Since February, Jerome Powell has served as chair pro tempore of the Federal Reserve in the absence of a complete Senate vote, and the central bank now lacks a vice-chair in the absence of Fed governor Lael Brainard’s confirmation. Economist Philip Jefferson is also awaiting a full Senate vote after Sarah Bloom Raskin’s withdrawal from consideration as Biden’s Fed vice chair for supervision in reaction to the “relentless onslaught by special groups.”
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