House turmoil not likely to quiet GOP critics of SEC rule proposals
House Republicans may have shot themselves in the foot this week with the historic ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy but that doesn’t mean they’ll be taking their aim off the SEC.
McCarthy was deposed as speaker Tuesday after eight far-right Republicans and all Democrats voted to remove the California Republican from office. McCarthy drew the support of 210 GOP House members but could not get to a majority of the chamber without the support of his recalcitrant fellow Republicans. Republicans hold 221 seats in the chamber, where 218 is the majority.
The House is in recess until a vote next week to elect a new speaker. The turmoil comes as the Republican majority on the House Financial Services Committee has been blasting Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler and many of the proposals on the agency’s expansive agenda.
Republican members of the panel grilled Gensler on a range of issues at a hearing last week. In a recent letter to Gensler, two leaders of the panel’s subcommittees, Reps. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., and French Hill, R-Ark., joined GOP Sens. Bill Hagerty (Tenn.) and Mike Rounds (S.D.) in excoriating the SEC’s proposal targeting potential conflicts of interest for investment advisors and brokers who use artificial intelligence and other predictive data analytics.
The chair of the committee, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., is serving as acting speaker until a new speaker is selected. Even though the House is essentially shut down until Republicans sort out its leadership, that doesn’t mean the SEC can breathe easy when it comes to its critics in the chamber.
“This is a transition of leadership,” said Milan Dalal, managing partner at the government relations consulting firm Tiger Hill Partners, and a former
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