Eleven senators are asking the Trump administration to nominate Democrats to vacant board seats that have been set aside for minority party members at financial regulators.
“No Democrats now serve in leadership roles at any agency within the Committee’s jurisdiction,” Senate Banking Committee Democrats led by Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Raphael Warnock of Georgia wrote in a letter Tuesday to Dan Scavino, the director of the White House’s Office of Presidential Personnel.
Seats reserved by Congress for the minority party on the Securities and Exchange Commission, the board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the board of the Export-Import Bank have remained empty.
President Donald Trump also tried to fire the Democratic members of the National Credit Union Administration, although those terminations have been caught up in litigation.
“A full slate of commissioners and board members can bring a range of perspectives to policies that shape our markets,” the senators wrote. “But as the SEC, FDIC, NCUA, and EXIM now pursue consequential reforms across the economy and financial system, we are concerned that their lack of Democratic voices thwarts congressional intent.”
Trump appears to have made no effort to nominate Democrats to these board seats, Van Hollen and Warnock wrote, but is reportedly preparing to nominate a Republican replacement for outgoing SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce.
“The White House is doing so despite the fact that the Securities Exchange Act mandates that SEC nominations alternate between parties ‘as nearly as may be practicable’ and Chair Paul Atkins, a Republican, was the most recently appointed commissioner,” the senators wrote.
Atkins told the Senate Banking Committee in February that he was “supportive of having a full complement of commissioners,” as it “helps with debates and everything else,” the senators noted.
Peirce, incidentally, announced last month she would leave the SEC by November and take a job as a law professor at Regent University.
Export-Import Bank Chair John Jovanovic and Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott, R-SC, have each made statements in support of filling board seats.
Although the senators addressed vacant seats on the SEC, FDIC, NCUA, and EXIM boards only, as they fall under the purview of the Senate Banking Committee, other boards lack Democratic members as well, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Trade Commission.
Van Hollen and Warnock have requested that Scavino detail, by June 23, his office’s work to nominate Democrats to open board seats.
