FILE - Mary Joe White stands by as President Barack Obama announces in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, in this Jan. 24, 2013 file photo, that he will nominate White to lead the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). Mary Jo White, President Barack Obama's pick to be chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, will likely face tough questions Tuesday March 12, 2013 from senators about her decade of legal work representing some of the nation's largest banks and corporations. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
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FILE - Mary Joe White stands by as President Barack Obama announces in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, in this Jan. 24, 2013 file photo, that he will nominate White to lead the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). Mary Jo White, President Barack Obama's pick to be chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, will likely face tough questions Tuesday March 12, 2013 from senators about her decade of legal work representing some of the nation's largest banks and corporations. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
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FILE - In this Jan. 24, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama listens as Mary Joe White speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington after he announced that he will nominate White to lead the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). White, President Barack Obama's pick to be chairman of the SEC, will likely face tough questions Tuesday from senators about her decade of legal work representing some of the largest U.S. banks and corporations during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
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Mary Joe White speaks as President Barack Obama listens in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, after he announced that he will nominate White to lead the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), and re-nominate Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a role that he has held for the last year under a recess appointment. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
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Mary Joe White stands by as President Barack Obama announces in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, that he will nominate White to lead the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), and re-nominate Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a role that he has held for the last year under a recess appointment. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
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President Barack Obama announces in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, that he will nominate Mary Joe White, right, to lead the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), and re-nominate Richard Cordray, left, to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a role that he has held for the last year under a recess appointment. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
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FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2002 file photo, Mary Jo White, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, appears on Capitol Hill in Washington. A White House official says President Barack Obama on Thursday will nominate White as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). (AP Photo/Dennis Cook, File)
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President Barack Obama shakes hands with Mary Joe White in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013, after announcing that he will nominate White to lead the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), and re-nominate Richard Cordray, to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a role that he has held for the last year under a recess appointment. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
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FILE - In this Jan. 31, 2103 file photo, former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, President Obama's choice for defense secretary, testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pushed ahead Monday with plans for a vote on Hagel's nomination to be defense secretary despite Republican demands for more financial information from him. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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FILE - In this Jan. 31, 2013 file photo, former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, President Obama's choice for defense secretary, testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington. A bitterly divided Senate panel on Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, voted to approve Hagel to be the nation's defense secretary at a time of turmoil for the military with looming budget cuts, a fresh sign of North Korea's nuclear ambitions and drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., waits to make a statement in opposition to President Obama's choice to run the Pentagon as bitterly divided Senate Senate Armed Services Committee considers the nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska to be secretary of defense, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013. The committee’s Republicans were unified in their opposition to President Obama's choice of Hagel, a combat veteran who was twice-wounded in Vietnam. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate panel advances White nomination to head SEC
WASHINGTON (
AP) — A
Senate panel has approved
Mary Jo White's nomination to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission and sent it along for a final vote.
The Senate Banking Committee approved White's nomination on a 21-1 vote. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, was the only member to object. White is expected to be confirmed by the full Senate and become the first former prosecutor to lead the agency that oversees Wall Street.
The panel also advanced Richard Cordray's nomination to continue as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But his nomination was approved on a 12-10 party-line vote. All Republican members opposed the nomination. They have also opposed the newly created agency and have expressed interest in curtailing Cordray's power.
Republicans may try and block a final vote on Cordray's nomination.
White, who previously served as U.S. attorney in Manhattan, told the panel last week that she would aggressively pursue enforcement of Wall Street and hold individuals accountable for misconduct. She also pledged to avoid potential conflicts of interest from her work over the past decade at a private law firm representing big banks and corporations.
In a statement after the vote, Brown said he doesn't question White's integrity or skill as an attorney. "But I do question "Washington's long-held bias towards Wall Street and its inability to find watchdogs outside of the very industry that they are meant to police," he said.
"Mary Jo White will have plenty of opportunities to prove me wrong. I hope she will," Brown said.
Critics have complained that the SEC has failed to act aggressively to charge top executives at the biggest U.S. banks who may have contributed to the crisis that set off the Great Recession.
White would replace Elisse Walter, who has been interim chairman since Mary Schapiro resigned in December.
Cordray's nomination is less certain. Obama used a recess appointment last year to circumvent Republicans and install Cordray as director of the consumer protection agency. The appointment expires at year's end.
Republican senators reminded Cordray at his confirmation hearing that they want to see his powers as director of the agency curbed.
A federal appeals court ruled in January that Obama violated the U.S. Constitution by using a recess appointment in the same way to place two people on the National Labor Relations Board.
Tags:
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