U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) are urging Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler not to shorten the public comment period for rulemakings.
McHenry, the ranking member on the House Financial Services Committee, and Toomey, ranking member on the Senate Financial Services Committee, said most SEC proposals under Gensler’s chairmanship have allowed less than 60 days for public comment.
“We are concerned that the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) 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. 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 Republican lawmakers wrote in a letter to Gensler.
They asked Gensler to allow at least 60 days for public comment, citing the policy and practice of the Obama administration.
“We urge you to immediately extend all comment periods for the SEC’s proposed rules of significance to at least 60 days, including reopening the comment filing for those rulemakings with shorter comment periods that have closed prematurely. Finally, we request that you extend the comment period on the money market fund rule revisions to at least a 90-day comment period, consistent with the process for the most recent prior significant substantive revisions to the money market fund rule,” Toomey and McHenry added.