Instead of trying to come up with new ways to repeatedly express public "disappointment" in the SEC, perhaps the U.S. Senate could simply do its own job and vote on the two nominees that President Obama nominated to join the Commission back in October 2015? Yes? No? Maybe?

As I have been following here for many months, President Obama nominated Hester Peirce and Lisa Fairfax to be SEC commissioners in October 2015 to fill open Republican and Democrat seats on the Commission, respectively. Peirce is currently a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and Fairfax is a law professor at the George Washington University Law School. The story of how basically nothing has happened with their nominations is chronicled here and elsewhere on this site, and is comparable to watching paint dry. 

Yesterday, Andrew Ackerman of the WSJ reported, these two nominations were delayed even further by the Senate when an unidentified Democratic Senator moved to block any confirmation vote on Peirce through a procedural step known as a “hold.” The WSJ reported that "overcoming a hold generally requires the high hurdle of support from 60 senators."

The hold on Peirce also affects the nomination of Fairfax because the Senate traditionally fills Democratic and Republican vacancies on the SEC at the same time to "ensure partisan balance." According to the WSJ, the latest delays could result in these two open SEC commissioner seats not being filled until the next presidential administration, leaving the SEC to handle its many responsibilities with just three commissioners.

I propose a "hold" on any further smack talk from the Senate about the SEC until the Senate performs the main job it is has with respect to the agency--vote on these nominees!

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