President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Michael Selig, advanced on Thursday as it heads to the full Senate for the next vote.
The Senate Agriculture Committee voted 12 to 11 along party lines to move forward with Selig, moving quickly after his initial nomination hearing on Wednesday.
Selig's potential leadership at the CFTC comes as lawmakers look to put the agency at the helm for crypto regulation. Bills in the House and Senate would give the agency broader authority over the industry.
On Wednesday, lawmakers in that committee pressed Selig on whether the CFTC needs more funding to bulk up as the agency is set to take that central role in regulating digital assets. The CFTC has 543 full-time staff compared to 4,200 at the Securities and Exchange Commission. When asked about funding on Wednesday, Selig demurred and said that once he becomes chair, he would be able to see if the agency needs more funding.
He was also asked about the agency maintaining its independence. Some lawmakers voiced concern during the hearing about needing commissioners from both political parties to be commissioners at the agency. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., asked whether Selig supported having two Democrats and two Republicans on the commission and what his advice would be to Trump when the president picks the next set of commissioners.
"My role and my job, if confirmed as chairman, is to fulfill the agency's mission and I believe that mission is best fulfilled when we have a diversity of viewpoints coming wherever we can find those viewpoints," Selig said in response.
Selig also spoke about the need for clear rules for crypto, while focusing on consumers and allowing software developers to grow.
"This is a real opportunity to develop a framework that can allow for software developers to thrive, for new exchanges to crop up that are going to protect investors and have the types of controls that you would expect in an exchange and make sure that we have the right disclosure and requirements that we have typically in our financial markets," he said on Wednesday.
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