The Senate on June 16, 2022, unanimously confirmed Jaime Lizárraga and Mark Uyeda to serve as SEC commissioners.
Both are staffers on Capitol Hill.
Lizárraga is currently a senior adviser to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He oversaw issues related to financial markets, housing, immigration, and small business policy. He has 31 years of experience in public service, advising lawmakers and heads of executive agencies.
He will succeed departing Democratic Commissioner Allison Herren Lee, who in March announced she will leave the agency once her successor is confirmed. She said she will not seek a second term. Her first term ended on June 5.
Uyeda will fill a Republican seat that has been left vacant after Elad Roisman, a Trump appointee, stepped down in January this year before his term was due to end in June 2023.
Uyeda is a career attorney at the SEC. But he is currently on detail from the agency to the Senate Banking Committee where he serves as securities counsel on the committee’s minority staff, the White House said.
Previously, Lizárraga was a Democratic staffer on the House Financial Services Committee and a presidential appointee at the Treasury Department and the SEC.
The Biden administration said that Lizárraga played key roles in many legislative initiatives, including the Build Back Better Act, the American Rescue Plan, COVID-19 relief legislation, and the Dodd-Frank Act.
Uyeda has more than 25 years of experience in corporate and securities laws, including 18 years of public service in federal and state government.
He joined the SEC in 2006 and has worked in various capacities, including as senior adviser to Chairman Jay Clayton and Acting Chairman Michael Piwowar, and as counsel to Commissioner Paul Atkins. He was also assistant director and senior special counsel in the SEC’s Division of Investment Management.
The full Senate confirmation follows an uneventful confirmation hearing by the Senate Banking Committee in May.
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