The months-long wait for filling vacancies on the Securities and Exchange Commission may soon be coming to an end.

On March 15 at 10 a.m., the Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on President Obama’s October nominations of Lisa Fairfax (a Democrat) and Hester Peirce (a Republican) to replace departed commissioners Louis Aguilar and Daniel Gallagher.

Fairfax, a law professor at the George Washington University Law School, was previously an associate at the law firm Ropes & Gray. Peirce, an outspoken critic of the Dodd-Frank Act, is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a conservative think tank. Peirce has previouslt served on the staff of the Senate Banking Committee and w as a staff attorney with the SEC from 2000 to 2008.

The scheduling of a hearing comes on the heels of a Feb. 22 letter by Democrats on the committee that urged Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) to” stop obstructing President Obama’s nominees for critical Administration positions.”

Sixteen nominations are now pending before the Banking Committee, some in political limbo for more than a year as Shelby had blocked movement on any nominations until the President appoints a vice chairman for supervision at the Federal Reserve. "The response to one vacancy should not be the creation of 16 more,” the letter says.

Pending nominees include Adam Szubin, who was appointed in April 2015 to serve as undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes at the Treasury Department. Szubin is currently serving in the position in an acting capacity. The post is among those responsible for enforcing U.S. sanctions laws.

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