The full Senate on Thursday confirmed by voice vote Hester Peirce and Robert Jackson to be commissioners at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Senate Banking Committee approved their nominations by voice vote on Nov. 1.
The Senate also approved Preston Rutledge to be assistant secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration. Rutledge will be instrumental in shepherding through any change that Labor makes to its fiduciary rule.
In testimony during their nomination hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Oct. 14, both Peirce, a fellow at the pro-free-market Mercatus Center, and Jackson, a Columbia Law School professor, voiced their support for the agency moving ahead on a fiduciary rulemaking, but they signaled that the agency should tackle other priorities first.
Jackson, a Democrat, said at the October hearing that the SEC "should have an important role in the development of these fiduciary standards; it is a natural area for the SEC to do a rulemaking," citing SEC Chairman Jay Clayton's work with the Labor Department and other regulators "to develop the SEC's presence."
Peirce, a Republican, reiterated her concerns about Labor's fiduciary rule "as it's currently written," stating that she's "glad that calmer minds have prevailed and that people at DOL and at the SEC are taking a look at it."
