U.S. President Donald Trump's EBSA pick and his two remaining SEC commissioner picks got the green light just before Christmas, days after approving the tax bill.

On Thursday the U.S. Senate confirmed Robert Jackson, Hester Peirce, and Preston Rutledge, the first two as members of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the last as the Assistant Secretary of Labor for the DoL's Employee Benefits Security Administration. Jackson's term at the SEC will expire on June 5, 2019, while Peirce's will expire on June 5, 2020.

InvestmentNews and the Wall Street Journal covered the confirmations. The WSJ notes that the confirmation of Jackson and Peirce was unananimous, after Senator Tammy Baldin (D-Wisconsin) dropped on a hold on the nominations.

The confirmation of Jackson (to a Democratic seat on the commission) and Peirce (to a Republican seat) will bring the SEC up to its full complement of commissioners for the first time in two years. Yet that may not last long. The term of one of the three sitting commissioners, Kara Stein (who fills a Democratic seat), is set to expire this year. The term of Chairman Jay Clayton (picked by Trump earlier this year) expires in 2021, while the term of current Commissioner Michael Piwowar (who fills a Republican seat) expires in 2018.

Meanwhile, Rutledge will take over the piece of the Department of Labor that is closest to ERISA and to the fiduciary rule that partially took effect in June and has been partially delayed to July 2018. Expect him to play a key role as the DoL evaluates and potentially revises the controversial reg.

Jackson is a professor at Columbia University. Peirce, senior research fellow at George Mason University, is a former Senate Banking Committee staffer. And Rutledge is a Senate Finance Committee staffer.

ICI president and CEO Paul Schott Stevens praises all three appointees. Stevens calls Jackson "highly suited to be an SEC commissioner," pointing to the professor's "expertise on corporate governance matters and on data-science techniques to improve securities-market transparency" in particular. Stevens lauds Peirce for her "tremendous financial regulatory expertise and free-market perspective." And as for Rutledge, Stevens highlights the new EBSA chief's "work to advance important, bipartisan retirement legislation" and his "deep expertise in retirement policy, employee benefits, and other important areas." 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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