Statement Summary
The Chairman of the SEC, recently sworn in, emphasizes a renewed focus on the agency’s core mission of protecting investors, facilitating capital formation, and maintaining efficient markets. He seeks to establish clear and effective regulations, particularly in the evolving crypto market, addressing prior ambiguities and encouraging innovation while deterring fraud. The SEC will lengthen public comment periods for rulemaking and prioritize smart regulation that balances costs and benefits. With staff reductions and oversight changes underway, the Chairman stresses the importance of regional offices and effective technology infrastructure. Overall, the SEC aims to boost investor confidence and enhance the U.S. investment landscape, ensuring regulations support economic growth.
Original Statement
Chairman Joyce, Ranking Member Hoyer, and members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to testify today. I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss the SEC, including our important mission on behalf of our fellow citizens, investors, and taxpayers. I also appreciate the opportunity as well to speak to some of my priorities as Chairman.
Four weeks ago today, I was sworn in by Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump; my family was by my side. I am honored by the trust and confidence that the President and the Senate placed in me to lead the SEC. As I testify before you, this is my 20th working day as Chairman. I have returned to the SEC where I was a Commissioner from 2002 to 2008. In that time, I advocated for greater transparency at the agency and emphasized robust cost-benefit analysis when considering new regulations.
With my fellow Commissioners, Congress, and SEC staff, I look forward to working to ensure that the United States is well-positioned to seize on the new excitement for investment and economic opportunity that President Trump’s leadership and pro-growth policies have inspired.
Core Mission
First and foremost, it is a new day at the SEC. I am determined that we return to our core mission that Congress set for us more than 90 years ago. The SEC’s three-part mission was enunciated by Congress in the Exchange Act: protecting investors; facilitating capital formation; and maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets.
Investor protection is vital to our mission—holding accountable those who lie, cheat, and steal. The SEC will remain vigilant in our important role to ensure that investors have confidence to participate in the markets. Capital formation is also at the root of what we do, fostering a direct, economical route for investors’ capital to find its way to entrepreneurs and industry to create products and services. This engine of growth employs people, helping them to work and save to achieve their dreams.
The third core part of our mission is maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets. Congress calls on the Commission to ensure that our regulations balance costs and benefits, that they do not become too burdensome by adding needless friction to the marketplace, undermining the capital formation that yields so much benefit. During my tenure as chairman, the SEC will not stray from this core three-part mission.
Regulatory Approach
My time in public service and the private sector has allowed me to see firsthand how regulations affect markets and investors. They can stoke innovation, facilitate investment goals, and create opportunities—or burdens—on businesses’ ability to compete and serve their customers.
It is crucial that we implement regulations at the SEC effectively. Regulation should be smart, effective, and appropriately tailored within the confines of our statutory authority. Our goal at the SEC must be to facilitate those efforts, analyze their effectiveness, and use our enforcement power to correct any wayward actions.
In short, clear rules of the road benefit all market participants. The SEC is returning rulemaking to regular order. Our comment periods will not be artificially short, and the public will have ample time to provide feedback. We will also take into consideration regulatory overlaps and burdens, in keeping with our obligation to consider their costs and benefits.
Focus on Crypto Regulation
From 2017 until my nomination, I worked to help develop best practices for the digital assets industry and noted how ambiguous regulations in this space inhibited innovation and invited fraud. A key priority of my Chairmanship will be to develop a rational regulatory framework for crypto asset markets that establishes clear rules for the issuance, custody, and trading of crypto assets while continuing to deter bad actors.
Policymaking will be conducted through notice and comment rulemaking, not through regulation-by-enforcement. The Commission’s enforcement approach will return to Congress’ original intent, which is to police violations of established obligations, particularly in reference to fraud and manipulation.
The Crypto Task Force, established under Commissioner Uyeda and Commissioner Peirce, exemplifies how our policy divisions can come together to provide the clarity needed in this area. We have held several roundtables to further define security status, tailor regulation for crypto trading, custody, and tokenization.
Organizational Changes
The SEC has decreased its headcount by 15% since the beginning of the current fiscal year due to early retirements and voluntary separations. When I left the agency in 2008, we had approximately 3,600 employees; today we are approximately 4,200 employees and 1,700 contractors.
To improve management and oversight, we have realigned the reporting lines in the Divisions of Enforcement and Examinations. I am also seeking approval from Congress to disband the agency’s Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (FinHub), integrating innovation into the culture SEC-wide.
Conclusion
The SEC will continue to work with colleagues in the Administration and Congress to bolster the economy and advance U.S. leadership in global markets. This SEC will work to protect investors from fraud, keep politics out of securities laws and regulations, and promote clear rules that encourage investment.
We will ensure that regulations promote capital formation rather than stifle it. Every effort will be made to keep the U.S. as the best and most secure place in the world to invest and do business, instilling utmost confidence in Americans when investing their hard-earned dollars.
