Tim Scott Calls for SEC Accountability

Lawmakers want to require the SEC chairman to testify before Congress on a semi-annual basis.

That's according to Senate Republicans, who introduced new legislation Tuesday that would expand oversight from provisions allowed under the Dodd-Frank Act, and thus require semi-annual appearances before Congress to increase “transparency and accountability.”

The legislation, called the Empowering Main Street in America Act, was introduced just hours before a scheduled hearing in the Senate Banking Committee with current Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler was announced to be postponed on Wednesday.

The hearing postponement comes as Gensler appeared separately Tuesday on Capitol Hill before the House Financial Services Committee, where the committee chairman took criticism from both sides.

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Senate Banking Committee member Tim Scott criticized the postponement in a statement to Fox Business Network, saying, “The last-minute cancellation of the hearing while he was still testifying before the House underscores what is wrong with the SEC under Gensler.”

Scott continued to denounce Gensler's record on the committee, declaring that Gensler's approach during his three-year tenure was harmful to businesses.

“Because SEC Chairman Gensler’s aggressive regulatory agenda threatens the American economy — burying companies in paperwork, limiting access to capital, and hurting America’s retirement savers — the Senate Banking Committee deserves the opportunity to hold him accountable for his actions,” the South Carolina senator added.

The postponement was ultimately a decision made in consultation with Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, according to people familiar with the matter. A new time and date will be set in the near future, according to a message on Banking Committee website.

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A separate Senate source said the delay was due to scheduling issues.

Bank regulators are required by law to testify before Congress, under the Dodd-Frank Act passed after the 2007-2008 financial crisis. But the SEC doesn’t fall under that standard.

Scott and nine other Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee say they want to change that.

The proposed legislation, the senators say, would return the SEC to its “core focus on ensuring that the engines of the U.S. capital markets system are ready to fuel the next chapter of American exceptionalism, rather than creating new and burdensome hurdles that limit opportunity, drive new investors out of markets, and discourage innovation and competition.”

Republicans continue to argue that more oversight is needed at the regulator so that it can fulfill its three-part mission of facilitating capital formation, protecting investors, and maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets.

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But the legislation alleges that this has not happened, saying the agency has created an “increasingly hostile regulatory environment” for investors and businesses.

“This is exactly why we need to pass the Empower Main Street Act to require the SEC chairman to testify on a semi-annual basis,” Scott concluded on Fox Business Network.