Senate Confirms New CFTC Chairman, Commissioner

After a lengthy delay, the Senate on Friday approved Washington lawyer Brooksley E. Born as the next chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Also approved as a CFTC commissioner is David Spears, a former aide to GOP presidential hopeful Bob Dole.

The CFTC supervises the nation’s commodities and futures markets.

Born, 55, is a partner with the prominent law firm of Arnold & Porter. She was considered a candidate for U.S. attorney general early in President Clinton’s term and for a seat on a federal appeals court. She specializes in complex litigation, including commodities law.

“Having a permanent chairman and full commission membership is important for the CFTC to do its job of market oversight during very volatile times,” Senate Agriculture Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) said in a statement.

The CFTC has had an increasingly prominent role in international markets, with its investigators taking the lead on the Sumitomo Corp. copper trading scandal and the Barings collapse as a result of losses from futures trades by a Singapore trader. The agency has been without a permanent chairman since January, when Mary Schapiro left to join the National Assn. of Securities Dealers as its regulatory chief.

Spears is a former state director of Dole offices in Kansas. He was picked in February to succeed Sheila Bair on the five-member commission.

The Senate Agriculture Committee approved Born and Spears on May 22, but the full Senate delayed final confirmation, although both nominees had strong industry support.