At the same time the White House announced the two SEC picks, it also nominated a pair of potential CFTC commissioners, which also included both a Democrat and Republican choice, Nathan Anonick, a Republican staffer for the Senate Agriculture Committee, and Democratic pick Matthew Rowland, who was on Johnson’s CFTC staff.
The agriculture panel, which would need to similarly sign off on Trump’s new picks for the CFTC, hasn’t yet scheduled a hearing.
Committee Chairman John Boozman “welcomes these nominations and looks forward to holding a hearing soon,” a spokesperson said in an email.
Nominating Democrats is an unusual development from this administration, which has otherwise sought to remove members of the opposition party from roles on regulatory commissions and boards. Since the start of last year, the White House had let both the SEC and CFTC dwindle to only having Republican members — two at the SEC and a lone member of the CFTC, Chairman Mike Selig.
Traditionally, regulatory nominees have often been presented from both parties at once to ease their confirmation, giving each party a nominee to support. In this case, the particular seats the nominees would fill have placed the Democrats in the vacancies that have the shortest remaining time in their current terms.