Two ranking Republicans criticized Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler on Tuesday rushing proposed rules by shortening traditional comment periods.
In a letter to Gensler, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), ranking member of the House Committee on Financial Services, and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, slammed Gensler for giving interested parties less than 60 days to comment on the majority of SEC rule proposals he’s overseen since being sworn in as chairman April 17.
Some proposed rules only allow for 30 days of review, “leading to the impression that the commission is rushing decisions,” they said.
The lawmakers told the nation’s top securities cop that they are “concerned that rulemakings under your tenure have consistently provided unreasonably short comment periods, which will harm the quality of public comment and may run afoul of the Administrative Procedure Act.”
McHenry and Toomey urged Gensler “to immediately extend all comment periods for the SEC’s proposed rules of significance to at least 60 days.”
Since taking over the SEC, the majority of SEC proposals put forward under Gensler’s chairmanship have allowed less than 60 days for public comment. Three proposals provided 45-day comment periods, six proposals provided 30-day comment periods and only two proposals provided 60-day comment periods, McHenry and Toomey wrote.
The SEC “should remedy this disturbing and unprecedented pattern—which contradicts executive orders from both Democratic and Republican administrations meant to encourage deliberative rulemakings—by extending the comment period of all proposed rulemakings that have been released during your time at the SEC. The notice-and-comment process is critical to effective SEC rulemaking,” the lawmakers said.
Among the proposals that received just 30-day comment were those concerned with proxy rules and electronic recordkeeping requirements for broker-dealers, they said.
They also asked Gensler extend the comment period on the agency’s money market fund rule revisions to at least 90 days.
Sixty days “is still an insufficient amount of time for such significant revisions to money market fund rules,” they said.