December 1, 2016
Financial Choice Act: Death to Interpretive Guidance at the Commission Level?
Recently, I blogged about how Section 631 of the Financial Choice Act would seriously damage the SEC’s ability to conduct rulemaking. If that didn’t move you, try Section 412 on for size:
The notice and comment requirements of section 553 of title 5, United States Code, shall also apply with respect to any Commission statement or guidance, including interpretive rules, general statements of policy, or rules of Commission organization, procedure, or practice, that has the effect of implementing, interpreting, or prescribing law or policy and that is voted on by the Commission.
As I understand it, Section 631 wouldn’t impact guidance at the Staff level – only guidance issued by the Commission itself. Whew, otherwise it would be nearly impossible to get no-action letters & CDIs out the door. But this would impact the occasional interpretive release that the SEC issues after the Commissioner vote upon it (here’s a list). And while going through the Administrative Procedures Act process is doable – it’s a lot of work & would take much more time to implement…
The Arrival of the Trump Risk Factors
A few weeks ago, I predicted that we would see risk factors related to the change in Administration. This blog by Steve Quinlivan notes that the first batch of these have been filed…
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– Broc Romanek