US lawmaker proposes to cut SEC chair Gary Gensler’s salary to $1

The Financial Services and General Government bill proposes to drastically cut funding to the SEC and other government agencies.

A United States lawmaker wants to strip the Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler of his salary by paying him just $1 per year.

In a proposed amendment to the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG), Rep. Tim Burchett suggested that Gensler’s salary be brought down to $1, as part of wider proposal to defund the regulator.

First introduced on July 13 this year, the FSGG bill is a wide-ranging piece of legislation that aims to significantly reduce government spending across the board.

*Rep. Burchett's proposed amendment to the FSGG bill. Source: House Committee on Appropriations*

It’s estimated that Gensler earns north of $300,000 per year for his duties as head of the SEC.

Burchett wasn't the only lawmaker taking aim at the SEC, with the overall bill aimed at drastically cutting funding to government agencies.

While introducing the bill to the House Rules Committee on Nov. 6, Rep. Steve Womack outlined that the SEC, among other government agencies, had fallen prey to regulatory overreach and were becoming an undue financial burden on the government.

Womack said that the best course of action would be to defund the SEC, to help limit its regulatory “intrusiveness” while forcing the regulator to return focus to its core mission.

“Specifically, we turn off rulemakings at the Securities and Exchange Commission that lack proper cost-benefit analysis and aggregate impact analysis.”

“To be clear, the agencies under our jurisdiction perform important functions; however, many have strayed from their mandate and the results have been a true disservice to the American people,” Womack added.

We are on an unsustainable trajectory.

My bill reins in wasteful Washington spending to address our dire fiscal situation. https://t.co/lWgyvHknQQ
— Rep. Steve Womack (@rep_stevewomack) November 6, 2023

This isn’t the first time that Gensler and his agency have come under fire from U.S. politicians.

On June 12, United States Reps. Warren Davidson and Tom Emmer introduced the SEC Stabilization Act to the House of Representatives, with one of the bill's primary provisions being one that would remove Gary Gensler as chair of the SEC.

If passed, the bill would fire Gensler and redistribute the power of the agency between the SEC chair and commissioners. It would also create an executive director position and add a sixth commissioner to the agency to prevent any one political party from holding a majority sway.

Davidson and Emmer have long been vocal critics of the Gensler-led SEC, with Emmer calling the SEC Chair a “bad faith regulator” and accusing him of “blindly spraying the crypto community with enforcement actions while completely missing the truly bad actors.”

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SEC is ‘wrongfully attempting’ to police crypto markets: Paradigm counsel

Bittrex

Rodrigo Seira has blasted the SEC for overstepping its jurisdiction in its case against crypto exchange Bittrex.

Crypto investment firm Paradigm’s Special Counsel Rodrigo Seira has become the latest to slam the United States securities regulator, this time for “wrongfully” pursuing crypto exchange Bittrex in an attempt to police secondary crypto markets.

In a July 11 Twitter thread, Seira added his thoughts after an amicus brief filing from Paradigm, arguing that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's case against U.S.-based crypto exchange Bittrex should be “dismissed” as it relies upon an unreasonable use of the Howey test to make its claims.

The SEC’s lawsuit against Bittrex is the first of three cases that the SEC has brought in rapid succession against crypto exchanges. Through these actions, the SEC is wrongfully attempting to lay claim over crypto secondary markets.
— Rodrigo (@RSSH273) July 10, 2023

On July 7, Paradigm filed an amicus brief, which claimed the financial regulator overstepped its jurisdiction.

In his thread, Seira also pointed out that SEC chair Gary Gensler had previously admitted that crypto exchanges did not have an adequate regulatory framework, making it clear in his view that the regulator lacks sufficient authority to regulate these secondary markets.

Seira made similar arguments in a July 7 blog post, noting the SEC lacks authority because crypto-assets do not involve “investment contracts.” As a result, crypto-assets do not fall under the agency’s remit.

“Until the SEC engages in the rulemaking Coinbase has requested, the digital-assets industry is stuck in limbo, simultaneously told to ‘come in and register’ yet having no effective means of doing so.”

The SEC first filed a complaint against Bittrex on April 17. Nearly two weeks later on April 30, the exchange surrendered its Florida money transmitter license before eventually filing for bankruptcy on May 8.

This also marks the second time that Paradigm has offered its support to a crypto organization facing legal action from the SEC.

On May 11, Paradigm petitioned to file an amicus brief in support of Coinbase which claimed that the SEC had failed to provide clear rules or guidance for digital asset firms in the U.S.

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