Republican Ohio Rep. Warren Davidson is calling for Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler to be removed from his post and for the SEC to be restructured.
Davidson laid out his case for removing Gensler and restructuring the SEC in his closing remarks at Tuesday’s SEC Oversight hearing by the House Financial Services Committee.
🚨I’m calling to restructure the @SECGov and the removal of Chair @GaryGensler.
Watch my closing remarks from today’s hearing where I lay out the abuse of power and failure to protect investors that has occurred. pic.twitter.com/SNXio9Zbej
— Warren Davidson 🇺🇸 (@WarrenDavidson) April 18, 2023
“Chairman Gensler, your record of failures to protect investors and abuses of power make it clear that we need to restructure the Securities and Exchange Commission,” Davidson said. (RELATED: SEC Staff Consulted With Green Financial Firm Accused Of Selling ‘Fictitious’ Carbon Credits)
“The failures are many, but let me cite some of the abuses. You average more than two rules proposals a month, you inappropriately provide inappropriately short comment periods. You have unworkable and unlawful ESG [environmental, social and governance] disclosure mandates on the market. You have essentially a ‘Hotel California’ rule for crypto when you can check in anytime you like, but you can never leave. You have endless discovery with no resolution and no clarity for the captives in the market. You have unworkable proposals for overhauling equity market structure, a de facto ban on crypto through proposed custody rule. You have high staff turnover, unhappy people leaving your office, and unhappy companies and capital leaving our country,” Davidson continued.
“I am introducing legislation that removes the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and replaces the role with an executive director that reports to the board, where all authority would reside.”
Gensler received strong pushback from companies, investors and lawmakers when he proposed rules in March 2022 mandating companies disclose climate change-related data about their business to the agency. As of February 2023, the SEC was considering a softer version of the rules with less onerous disclosure requirements than originally planned.
Republican lawmakers have demanded answers from Gensler about how the SEC developed its proposed climate rules and the outside organizations with which the agency coordinated to create the rules. Additionally, they requested Gensler provide cost estimates for the new rules due to concerns about the rules being expensive to follow, open to interpretation and a detriment to accurate cost reports.
Gensler received intense scrutiny for his management of the crypto industry when disgraced former crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire rapidly collapsed in November 2022 after allegations of widespread fraud. Bankman-Fried has since been indicted by federal prosecutors on numerous charges related to the alleged fraud and subject to a civil complaint by the SEC.