Senators cancel vote for SEC’s Crenshaw, upping chances of all-GOP commission

The Senate Banking Committee canceled a vote to reconfirm Democratic SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, upping the chances of a three-person, all-Republican commission in the new administration.

The Senate Banking Committee, led by Chair Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, initially scheduled a vote for Dec. 11, which then got postponed and rescheduled for Dec. 18. However, on Dec. 17, the committee canceled the vote.

In a Dec. 17 post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., wrote, “my Republican colleagues and I blocked Banking Democrats’ 11th-hour attempt to install an anti-crypto, climate activist at the SEC.”

Since she first took office in 2020, Crenshaw's term technically expired in June, though SEC commissioners are allowed to serve up to 18 months past the expiration of their terms.

Crenshaw is currently one of three Democrats on the five-person commission. However, Chair Gary Gensler announced he plans to leave the agency Jan. 20, the same day as President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, and Commissioner Jaime Lizarraga said he will leave the SEC on Jan. 17, as his wife is battling a serious illness.

That leaves room for Trump to nominate Paul Atkins, his choice to chair the SEC, as a replacement for Crenshaw, which could result in a three-person, all-Republican commission, as no more than three commissioners can belong to the same party.

“We need to get Paul (Atkins) into position as quickly as we possibly can,” Hagerty said at the Blockchain Association’s Policy Summit in Washington on Dec. 17, though he didn’t address the canceled Crenshaw vote or what that could mean for the future of the SEC.

More than 50 organizations — including AFL-CIO, Americans for Financial Reform, Public Citizen, Reform Pension Board and the Sierra Club — sent a Dec. 12 letter to the Senate urging them to confirm Crenshaw to the SEC, given the potential consequences of not doing so.

“At stake is the reality of a bipartisan SEC,” the organizations wrote. “The incoming Trump administration has signaled they are considering breaking from the tradition that provides for the opposition party to select candidates for the two minority seats.”

The organizations added that Crenshaw “supports shareholder rights, including the right of public pension funds to place their issues before annual meetings,” and contended “she has stood up for workers, retirees, pension funds and investors generally.”

Bartlett Naylor, financial policy advocate for Public Citizen, explained in an email that the organization is concerned Trump could choose from a host of different scenarios at the SEC. Naylor said Trump could have a three-person commission consisting of all Republicans, create a five-person commission consisting of three Republicans and two independents, or create a five-person commission with one or two people registered as an independent or Democrat "who are actually right wing."