Two nominees for the Securities and Exchange Commission received approval from the Senate Banking Committee to advance to the full chamber Thursday, after being held up for weeks over surprise opposition from Democrats and Republicans.
The nominees, George Washington law professor Lisa Fairfax and Mercatus Center expert Hester Peirce, were approved by voice vote following votes on the Senate floor, a spokesman for committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said.
The panel also advanced three other nominees: Jay Lerner for inspector general of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Amias Gerety for assistant secretary for Financial Institutions at the Department of the Treasury and Rhett Jeppson to be director of the U.S. Mint.
Shelby had called a meeting in April to approve all of the nominees, but the vote unexpectedly failed after several Democrats banded together to oppose the SEC nominees because they would not commit to backing a rule mandating that corporations disclose political spending. The Democratic opposition extended to the Democratic nominee, Fairfax, as well as to Peirce, a former Shelby staffer. Combined with Republican opposition to Fairfax, there was not enough support to advance the candidates as a group.
Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the top Democrat on the committee, criticized Republicans for not confirming the financial nominees.
“It is disgraceful that the Senate still hasn’t confirmed any of the 20 nominations that the Banking Committee has received since the start of last year,” Brown said following the vote, calling specifically for action on nominees for the Export-Import Bank, which cannot approve large loans while understaffed.
