Fresh from a primary victory, Sen. Richard Shelby is apparently ready to move President Obama’s nominees through his committee.
The Senate Banking Committee, of which Shelby is chairman, announced on its site Tuesday that it would hold a nomination hearing on three financial agency candidates on March 15.
The hearing would be the first nomination hearing of 2016 and only the second full committee hearing of the year.
Shelby put off moving nominees in recent months as he fought off conservative challengers in his home state of Alabama. Even before his primary, however, he had declined to advance Obama’s picks through his committee, drawing the ire of his Democratic counterparts.
The March 15 hearing will examine the candidacy of Matthew Rhett Jeppson for director of the U.S. Mint, as well as two candidates for the Securities and Exchange Commission. One, Lisa Fairfax, is a George Washington University professor favored by congressional liberals. The other, Hester Peirce, is a scholar at the libertarian think tank the Mercatus Center and a former Shelby staffer.
The committee has not scheduled a vote on confirming Adam Szubin as the top anti-terrorism official at the Treasury. Szubin’s installment is a priority for the administration. “It is one of the most important counterrorism positions in our government,” Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said Tuesday in testimony in the Senate. “He is eminently qualified. I don’t know anyone who’s raised a question about his qualifications. He represents us around the world in some of the most difficult environments. The Senate should confirm him, and confirm him quickly.”
Also waiting for consideration are Obama’s picks for two open spots on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.
A representative for Shelby did not immediately respond to a question about whether further hearings would be scheduled for nominees.
