Senate panel advances Biden’s picks to lead SEC, consumer bureau

The Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday advanced President Biden’s picks to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to the full Senate for confirmation votes.

The panel voted 14-10 in favor of Gary Gensler’s confirmation to fill a vacant spot on the SEC and become its chairman, with all 12 Democrats and Republican Sens. Mike Rounds (S.D.) and Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.) supporting his nomination.

Senators were split 12-12 along party lines on Federal Trade Commissioner Rohit Chopra’s nomination to serve as CFPB director.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is allowed to tee up a vote on Chopra’s confirmation under a bipartisan agreement struck after Democrats flipped Georgia’s two Senate seats and created a 50-50 split.

Gensler, the former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Chopra are both expected to be confirmed in the Senate, where Vice President Harris can cast a tie-breaking vote on the latter’s nomination if no Republican supports him.

Democrats have praised both of Biden’s picks for years of work toward bolstering consumer protections and calling for greater penalties against financial firms that mistreat or abuse customers. 

“Both nominees showed a deep knowledge of both the markets and the reality of the economy most families live in and are committed to creating an economy that works for all workers,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), chairman of the Banking panel and a fierce critic of financial industry.

Neither Gensler nor Chopra faced questions about their credentials during their confirmation hearing last week, but were still unable to gain substantial Republican support over deep ideological differences.

Several Republicans criticized Gensler’s calls for more exhaustive disclosures about the climate-related risks publicly traded companies face, their political spending, and the diversity of their leadership.

“There’s no doubt that Mr. Gensler knows a lot about the securities markets,” said Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), the panel’s staunchly conservative ranking Republican.

“But based on his record, I’m concerned that he will stray from this sec tradition of bipartisanship by using the agency’s regulatory powers to advance a liberal social agenda on issues such as climate change political spending and racial inequality.”

Lummis, a Bitcoin advocate, said that while she too was concerned about Gensler’s climate agenda, she supports his confirmation for his open-mindedness to cryptocurrencies and their role in financial innovation.

Republicans, however, universally opposed Chopra over his unapologetic commitment to maximizing the power he’d wield over the financial sector as CFPB director. A former top CFPB official, Chopra has consistently criticized regulators from both parties for what he considers inadequate punishment for firms that violate consumer protection laws.

“I’m deeply concerned that he’d return the CFPB to the hyperactive, sometimes law-breaking, anti-business, unaccountable agency it was under the Obama administration,” Toomey said.

Updated at 2:56 p.m.