A high-powered group of Senate Democrats voted against President Obama’s nominee for the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday because of her stance on disclosure of corporate political spending, snarling the Banking Commitee’s plans to advance a slate of nominees to financial posts.
Chuck Schumer of New York, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, and Jeff Merkley of Oregon all stated that they would continue oppose two nominees to the SEC at a nomination vote on the Senate Banking Committee Thursday.
One of the candidates, George Washington law professor Lisa Fairfax, was the Democratic pick for the financial regulatory agency, backed by liberals like Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Warren. Nevertheless, the Democrats said that appointing her was unacceptable because she failed to take a clear stance in favor a new rule on corporate political spending disclosures.
The other nominee, from Republicans, is Hester Peirce, an analyst at a libertarian think tank.
By voting “no” on the slate of nominees before the committee, the Democrats prevented the chairman, Richard Shelby of Alabama, from getting a majority in favor. Shelby postponed the vote.
After the hearing concluded, Shelby said that he would schedule another vote at a later date, and have a roll call vote on the nominations. He placed the blame for the hold-up on Democrats, saying “they are their nominations, OK?”
Democrats, earlier in the year, faulted Shelby for slowing down nominations in the committee while he was facing a conservative primary challenge in Alabama.
Schumer, the presumed leader of Senate Democrats next year, said that the answers he’d received from the nominees on the political spending rule were “gobbledygook.”
“If you invest your money in a company, you have the right to know how and when that company is spending your money to influence the outcome of an election,” said Merkley, adding that non-disclosure “is stolen speech” that is “drowning out the voice of the people.”
Democrats favor the new SEC rule as a response to the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision that removed some regulation of corporate funding of political nonprofits.
Liberal groups have pushed for years for the SEC to write a rule requiring publicly held companies to disclose donations to political nonprofits, but SEC chairwoman Mary Jo White removed such a rulemaking from the commission’s agenda.
“The SEC has the authority to help. What it doesn’t have is the will,” said Warren at Thursday’s hearing.
In addition to the SEC nominees, there were three other candidates whose nominations were in the balance in Thursday’s planned vote: One for inspector general of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, another to be assistant secretary of the Treasury, and a third to be director of the U.S. Mint.
