United States President Barack Obama's nominees for the Securities and Exchange Commission have been stalled by oppositions from the top Democrats in the senate. The senators are arguing whether the nominees support requiring publicly traded corporations to disclose their political spending.
According to ABC News, Senators Lisa Fairfax, a Democrat, and Hester Peirce, a Republican, have been in the middle of the issue. Senators Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, and Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Mississippi, were among the four members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee that opposed the choices of the US President. This led to Senator Richard Shelby, chairman, to postpone the said vote on Thursday.
Schumer argued that the nominees are 'fence-sitting' on the issue of forcing corporations to reveal their political spending. It is notable that the Republicans have succeeded in blocking the proposal in 2015's catch-all spending bill.
According to Yahoo, Schumer said in statement that "The SEC needs commissioners who believe in and support campaign spending transparency. I hope that both nominees will reconsider their fence-sitting on this critical issue before the vote, and make clear that they will support an SEC rule that will help root out secret money from our politics."
The opposition from President Obama allies to Fairfax, a Democrat, was said to be unusual in the situation while Peirce was recommended by the Republicans. Shelby already planned them to proceed together but was held off after Schumer, Warren, Jeff Merkley and Robert Menendez said their concerns.
In the recent years, many consumers and liberal groups with some of Democratic lawmakers have asked the SEC to make a rule that would require public companies to disclose their political donations to nonprofit groups. Herald Courier reported that the shareholders, also part of the company, should be knowledgeable of which political candidates are being supported with money. However, opponents held that political spending is something that shareholders need to know about a company.
Republicans even said that that the move by the SEC entitles to abuse of power. Meanwhile, Fairfax and Peirce said that the SEC appears to be prevented from approving the rule by the Republican amendment. Fairfax added she would want to consider the various arguments in the issue.
