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Senator questioned Chair Gary Gensler about the agency’s rulemaking process to protect Arizona businesses and families’ ability to get ahead
WASHINGTON – In a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema questioned U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler about how the agency is addressing management and performance challenges indicated in an October 2022 Office of Inspector General (IG) report. The annual report outlined serious concerns with the agency’s rulemaking process that are limiting Arizonans’ voices in the process and making it harder for Arizona businesses and families to get ahead.
“The IG report illustrates an SEC with a marked increase in attrition, difficulty in hiring qualified talent, and an overreliance on detailees with no rulemaking experience. …Ambitious rulemaking agendas under these constraints can result in poorly written rules that hurt Arizonans’ access to economic opportunity,” said Sinema, a member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.
In the hearing, Sinema emphasized how the SEC’s increase in rulemaking activities hurts the quality of the rules and spreads staff thin. Noting the importance of ensuring the highest quality of federal rules, Sinema questioned Chair Gensler about what the agency has done to address the management challenges in the year since the report was published. The Senator requested that she be briefed about the specific progress the SEC has made in the last year.
Sinema also raised how the IG report indicates that “shortened timelines during the drafting process” and “shortened public comment periods” may be resulting in less feedback during a rulemaking process, and how small businesses with less staff often require more time to understand the impact proposed rules will have on their business and provide feedback. The Senator questioned Chair Gensler about how the SEC is ensuring that they allow small businesses equal opportunity to weigh in on large, complex agency actions.