Key Congressman Urges Bush to Name Permanent SEC Chief

U.S. Rep. Michael G. Oxley (R-Ohio) is getting impatient with the power vacuum at the top of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Oxley, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said Thursday that President Bush is taking too long to appoint a permanent SEC chairman.

“This doesn’t send the right signals,” Oxley told reporters after a speech at a Security Traders Assn. conference. “It’s important to have a person with leadership in place.”

The SEC’s top position has been vacant since Arthur Levitt, a Democrat, resigned Feb. 9. Commissioner Laura Unger, a Republican, has been acting chairwoman since then.

A Bush administration spokesman had no comment.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm (R-Texas) differed with Oxley, saying there’s no reason for the Bush administration to speed its nomination, which must be approved by the Senate.

“I’d rather get the right person,” Gramm told the traders association conference. “No harm’s come of it.”

Differences between the two committee chairmen with the most influence over SEC policy suggest a split in Congress over how the Bush administration should proceed. The administration typically consults leading Republicans in Congress before making a high-level appointment.

The Bush administration has considered a number of candidates in recent months, including Washington lawyers Harvey Pitt and James Doty and acting SEC Chairwoman Unger, according to published reports.

Vice President Dick Cheney said this week that administration appointments were delayed by last year’s postelection dispute over Florida ballots. “We moved as rapidly as we could,” he said. “But we couldn’t begin to recruit people until the recount ended.”

Oxley praised Unger’s performance, yet said the problem is that “she still has ‘acting’ before her name.” Some potential candidates had been deterred by the hassle of filling out forms disclosing potential conflicts of interest, he said.