Senate Sets November 19 Hearing for Trump’s SEC Nominees

The Senate Banking Committee set a November 19 hearing for two of President Donald Trump’s Securities and Exchange Commission nominees, an unusually fast turnaround as the Republican-led Senate enters its final weeks with a working majority.

The committee booked the picks within hours of the White House announcement and updated its calendar late Thursday to place several nominations on the November 19 agenda. The administration has a handful of weeks in which the Republican party retains its Senate majority to move high-priority nominations through confirmation.

A spokesperson for Banking Committee Chairman John Boozman said in an email that the chairman “welcomes these nominations and looks forward to holding a hearing soon.” The statement indicates a willingness to act, but it does not establish a floor-vote date or a timetable for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission nominations.

The White House’s nominations divide across two commissions and both major parties:

• Steven Levine, SEC nominee: A Republican, attorney and senior lawyer at the Department of Labor who formerly served as Commissioner Mark Uyeda’s deputy chief of staff.
• Kristin Johnson, SEC nominee: A Democrat and former CFTC member who has worked as a professor at George Washington University School of Law since leaving the commission.
• Nathan Anonick, CFTC nominee: A Republican and staffer for the Senate Agriculture Committee.
• Matthew Rowland, CFTC nominee: A Democrat who previously worked on Johnson’s CFTC staff.

What does this change for companies watching federal regulation?

The Banking Committee hearing provides the panel that must sign off a scheduled forum while the Republican majority remains intact. It does not itself confirm either person, and the source provides no policy agenda for them.

The Senate Agriculture Committee, which must also sign off on the CFTC nominees, has not scheduled a hearing. The CFTC process therefore lacks the near-term date assigned to the SEC nominations, despite the White House announcing both sets of picks at the same time.

For now, the change is procedural rather than substantive. The source establishes a hearing date, the identity and party affiliation of all four nominees, and the current party composition of both commissions. It does not supply policy positions, hearing witnesses, a floor-vote schedule or a date for the CFTC hearing.

Until confirmations occur, the SEC remains at two Republican commissioners and the CFTC at one, Chairman Mike Selig. The nominees would fill some of the open seats only if the Senate confirms them. Until then, the hearing notice changes no agency staffing or policy direction by itself.

Nominating Democrats is unusual for an administration that has otherwise sought to remove opposition-party members from regulatory commissions and boards. Since the start of last year, the White House has allowed the SEC and CFTC to dwindle to Republican-only membership: two members at the SEC and Chairman Selig alone at the CFTC.

Traditionally, nominees have often been presented from both parties at once to ease confirmation, giving each party a candidate to support. Here, the particular vacancies assigned to the Democrats carry the shortest remaining time in their current terms. The cross-party approach therefore supplies the White House with nominees for the seats carrying the nearest term deadlines.

For regulated businesses, the distinction between a hearing notice and a Senate confirmation vote is the operative one. The notice opens the committee stage without changing who holds a commission seat. Senate confirmation, rather than the hearing itself, would determine whether the nominees occupy the vacancies.

The next firm checkpoint is the November 19 hearing. Whether the open seats can be filled before the current Senate majority’s final days run out will depend on the confirmation timetable that follows.