President Obama continued his shake-up of the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, naming two Senate aides to senior posts at the Wall Street regulatory agency.
The nominees to the five-member agency are Kara M. Stein, a Democrat, and Michael Piwowar, a Republican. If confirmed by the Senate, they will succeed commissioners whose terms are set to expire.
The move comes just months after Mr. Obama named Mary Jo White, a former federal prosecutor turned Wall Street defense lawyer, to be chairwoman of the agency. In recent weeks, Ms. White has started to overhaul the staff, naming co-heads of the agency’s enforcement unit, new leaders of other major divisions and her own chief of staff. She also hired a general counsel, Anne K. Small, who rejoined the S.E.C. from the White House.
The transition period has coincided with challenges for the agency, which has fallen far behind its rule-making responsibilities. Nearly three years after Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act, the overhaul of Wall Street regulation, the S.E.C. has carried out only a small fraction of the changes.
The possible arrival of Ms. Stein and Mr. Piwowar could add to some delays as they settle into the agency. Yet the nominees are hardly strangers to the S.E.C.’s business.
Ms. Stein is an aide to Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who is a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the S.E.C. Mr. Piwowar is the committee’s Republican chief economist.
In a statement late Thursday, the committee chairman, Tim Johnson, expressed support for both nominees. “I look forward to moving both their nominations forward to ensure the commission continues to operate at full strength,” said Mr. Johnson, Democrat of South Dakota.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/business/obama-nominates-2-senate-aides-for-sec-posts.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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