The White House has officially unveiled President Joe Biden's nominations for two positions on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with the upcoming departure of another commissioner.
In a Friday announcement, the White House saying had submitted the names of Citi's managing director, Caroline Pham, and Summer Mersinger to the Senate for confirmation. Mersinger previously served as chief of staff for Commissioner Dawn Stump, who is expected to leave the agency this year, as well as director of the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. She and Pham will take the places of the recently deceased Commissioner Dan Berkovitz, whose term expires in April 2023, and Stump, whose term ends in April 2027, respectively.
The CFTC nominations came the same week the White House officially announced that it had submitted nominations for Jerome Powell and Lael Brainard to the Senate to await confirmation before serving as the next chairman and vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, respectively. Senate confirmation would allow Powell and Brainard to serve as two of the Fed's top leaders through 2026. President Biden also introduced the names of Christy Goldsmith Romero and Kristin Johnson on Tuesday for the remaining vacant CFTC seats.
With the nominations for four CFTC commissioners subject to confirmation by US lawmakers, there will be no vacancies at the agency in 2022 after a leadership shakeup. Berkovitz announced in September that he was planning to leave the CFTC on October 15 to join the Securities and Exchange Commission as general counsel, and the Senate confirmed Rostin Behnam's nomination to chair the CFTC in December.
Right now, the Democratic party under the leadership of President Joe Biden controls 50 of the 100 seats in the Senate, and Vice President Kamala Harris can act as a tiebreaker if necessary. A simple majority vote is required to confirm the CFTC president's selections.
While the White House has come up with four names for CFTC commissioners, it has yet to officially name the candidates to fill the upcoming vacancies at the Federal Reserve. Board member Randal Quarles resigned from his position effective at the end of December 2021, while current Vice President Richard Clarida is expected to leave in February 2022. A report Wednesday from the Washington Post suggested the US president. is considering Duke University law professor Sarah Bloom Raskin to join the group of seven governors who serve on the Fed, in addition to economists Lisa Cook and Philip Jefferson.
Related: It's now or never: the US needs to prepare for digital currency
There may also be an opportunity for Biden to shake up leadership in another government agency responsible for regulating digital assets in the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC Commissioner Elad Roisman is expected to leave the agency in late January and Commissioner Allison Lee's term is set to expire in June. Some experts have pointed out that placing different financial experts in these three main US government agencies could have an impact on policy related to cryptocurrencies.
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