Statement before the US House Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government and Financial Services
Chairman Joyce, Ranking Member Hoyer, and distinguished members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
I am grateful for the chance to discuss the work of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our vital mission to serve the American people—investors, taxpayers, and citizens alike. I also welcome the opportunity to share some of my priorities as Chairman.
Just four weeks ago, I was sworn in as Chairman by Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in the Oval Office, with President Donald Trump and my family present. I am honored by the trust placed in me by the President and the Senate to lead the SEC.
Today marks my 20th working day as Chairman. This role represents a return to the SEC for me, where I previously served as Commissioner from 2002 to 2008. During that time, I was a strong advocate for increased transparency within the agency and for the rigorous use of cost-benefit analysis when considering new regulations. Earlier in my career, I also served on the staff of two SEC Chairmen—Richard Breeden, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, and Arthur Levitt, appointed by President Bill Clinton.
Alongside my fellow Commissioners, members of Congress, and the dedicated staff at the SEC, I am committed to ensuring that the United States is well-positioned to capitalize on the renewed enthusiasm for investment and economic opportunity fostered by President Trump’s leadership and pro-growth agenda.
SEC Mission
It’s a new day at the SEC, first and foremost. I’m adamant that we get back to the primary goal that Congress established for us over ninety years ago. Congress outlined the SEC’s three-pronged goal in the Exchange Act: safeguarding investors; promoting capital formation; and preserving efficient, equitable, and well-functioning markets. Protecting investors is essential to our goal of holding dishonest, dishonest, and thieving people accountable.
The SEC will continue to be watchful in our crucial responsibility to guarantee that investors feel secure enough to engage in the markets. The foundation of our work is capital creation, which is the process of creating a direct and cost-effective pathway for investors’ money to reach business owners and entrepreneurs so they can produce goods and services.
People are employed by this growth engine, which enables them to work and save for their future goals. Upholding efficient, just, and orderly markets is the third essential component of our purpose. Congress urges the Commission to make sure that our rules strike a balance between costs and benefits, avoid becoming overly onerous by creating unnecessary market friction, and protect the capital formation that provides so many advantages.
The SEC will not deviate from its fundamental three-part goal while I serve as chairman. I have direct experience with the impact of rules on markets and investors thanks to my time spent in the public and private sectors, both early in my career and more recently. They can spur innovation, help achieve investment objectives, and present opportunities—or challenges—for companies.ability to compete and serve their customers.
The SEC’s regulatory implementation is very important; writing a regulation is one thing, but ensuring that it accomplishes its intended purpose is quite another. Within the parameters of our statutory authority, regulations ought to be sensible, efficient, and suitably adapted.
To guarantee that clients and investors of financial services companies gain from effective, efficient, and well-designed regulation, market experience and targeted implementation are required. At the SEC, we must support those initiatives, assess their success, and utilize our enforcement authority to correct and correct misbehavior.
In summary, everyone involved in the market benefits from clear rules of the road.
The SEC is restoring regular order to rulemaking. We won’t have unnecessarily short comment times, and people will have enough of opportunity to offer their opinions. In keeping with our duty to weigh the costs and benefits of regulations, the SEC will also be sure to take into account how rules overlap and how regulatory burdens accumulate. Additionally, the SEC is eager to collaborate on our regulation with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
As interim Chairman of the SEC from January to April, Commissioner Mark Uyeda led the agency with great efficiency, and for that I am thankful.
He clarified some pressing policy concerns that we encountered in the courts throughout this transition, as well as some organizational challenges as the new Administration took office.
Together with Commissioner Pierce, he formed the Crypto Task Force, which has collaborated with personnel to provide the sector the direction it needs. In order to comply with Supreme Court decisions, he standardized the agency’s position on the materiality of disclosure obligations. He also supported agency steps to remove personally identifiable information (PII) from the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) and extend specific compliance dates.
I have faith in the course of our work as we look to the future. Naturally, as Chairman, my decades of experience will guide my approach.
The Commission will concentrate on giving business owners viable options to get the funding they require to implement their creative ideas and expand their enterprises in both the public and private sectors. Investors who contribute this kind of money must, however, be able to rely on strong enforcement against dishonest practices.
Digital Assets
I contributed to the creation of best practices for the digital assets sector from 2017 until my nomination, and I witnessed directly how unclear or nonexistent legislation in this area stifled creativity and caused uncertainty. Fraud is also encouraged by the absence of a regulatory framework.
Creating a sensible regulatory framework for the markets for cryptocurrency assets that lays out precise guidelines for their issue, custody, and trading while also discouraging lawbreakers would be a top goal of mine as chairman. Clear guidelines are essential for protecting investors from fraud, not to mention for assisting them in spotting illegal schemes.
Rather than using regulation-by-enforcement, policymaking will be accomplished through notice-and-comment rulemaking. The Commission will establish fit-for-purpose standards for market players by using its current powers. The Commission’s enforcement strategy will revert to Congress’s original goal of policing transgressions of these set duties, especially those involving fraud and manipulation.
I am happy that Commissioner Uyeda and Commissioner Hester Peirce have collaborated to form the Crypto Task Force because this endeavor necessitates coordination across several offices and divisions within the Commission. Policymaking silos have hampered the Commission for far too long. The Crypto Task Force is a perfect example of how our policy branches may collaborate to quickly give the American people the clarity and confidence they have long sought.
I am certain that the Crypto Task Force’s endeavor to provide a logical regulatory framework for crypto asset markets will be led by Commissioner Peirce, who is renowned for her unwavering and steadfast support of commonsense policy.
To date, the task force has had four roundtables on topics such as tokenization, custody considerations, customizing regulations for cryptocurrency trading, and further defining security status. I’m excited for the upcoming discussion on decentralized finance to hear from the industry and get more public input.
This work is significant. Blockchain technology is being used by entrepreneurs in the US and abroad to update parts of our financial system. This market innovation should help with efficiency, cost reduction, transparency, and risk mitigation, in my opinion.
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