Senate OKs Lawyer as SEC Chief

The Democratic-led Senate on Wednesday confirmed President Bush’s choice to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, putting the investor protection agency in Republican control for the first time in eight years.

By a voice vote, Harvey Pitt, a 56-year-old Washington lawyer, was approved as Wall Street’s top regulator. His confirmation had been expected.

Pitt will replace Arthur Levitt, who stepped down in February. Commissioner Laura Unger has been acting chairwoman since Levitt quit.

The SEC said it did not know when Pitt will be sworn in.

In his private legal practice, Pitt has represented some of Wall Street’s biggest names--including the New York Stock Exchange, insider trading figure Ivan Boesky and the Big Five accounting firms--in legal tussles with the SEC.

He is leaving a lucrative practice to make an annual salary of $133,700 as chairman of the SEC, where he was general counsel in the 1970s.

He will return to the agency as stock analysts’ objectivity and a fair disclosure rule requiring evenhanded corporate dissemination of market-moving news are under intense scrutiny by lawmakers and investors.

At his confirmation hearing in July, Pitt said he wanted the agency to lead a top-to-bottom review of securities laws to reflect technology “light-years away” from today. He did not specify which rules and regulations he intended to target first.

Pitt also said he planned to divest all his financial holdings to head off any perceived conflicts of interest.

Pitt will join fellow Republican Unger and Democrat Isaac Hunt on the five-seat SEC bench. The White House has not indicated when the two vacant seats will be filled.