Securities and Exchange Commissioner Daniel Gallagher announced Friday that he plans on leaving the agency October 2nd.
Previously, Gallagher had said that he would wait until the appointment of his successor to resign. But on Friday, he issued a statement that “the need to bring greater clarity to my tenure has steadily grown” in recent months.
“It has been a great honor to serve on the Commission during such an important time,” he added.
Gallagher’s resignation will put some pressure on President Obama and congressional Republicans to work toward approving a nominee for his seat, which is one of the five seats ear-marked for a Republican appointee.
He is likely to be replaced by Hester Peirce, a scholar at the libertarian Mercatus Center and a former Republican committee staffer, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
Obama also has to nominate a replacement for another commissioner, Luis Aguilar, whose term expired earlier this year. He is likely to pair the nomination of Aguilar’s successor with the GOP choice to replace Gallagher.
Gallagher, who has served as commissioner at the SEC since 2011, is known for his opposition to many of the agency’s rulemakings related to the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. More recently, he’s spoken out against the Department of Labor’s effort to impose a new rule on retirement advisers to prevent conflicts of interest.
