SEC Releases Jam-Packed Spring Agenda

The SEC has posted its Spring 2022 Regulatory Agenda of pending and new rulemakings the Commission plans to propose or adopt before the end of this year. Here is the short-term agenda and the long-term agenda. 

The Commission is planning to propose final rules on the following:

• October 2022: Final Dodd-Frank pay versus performance rule 
• October 2022: Final clawback rule
• October 2022: Final proxy voting advice rule
• October 2022: Final buybacks disclosure rule
• April 2023: Final 10b5-1 rule

New proposed rules that the Commission will pursue: 

• October 2022: Proposed Human Capital Management disclosure rule. As previously reported, it is likely that a new proposed rule will be highly prescriptive and focus on workforce composition, turnover, cost and diversity.
  
  
• April 2023: Proposed Corporate Board Diversity disclosure rule. 

In announcing the agenda, Chair Gensler said “… I’m driven by two public policy goals: continuing to drive efficiency in our capital markets and modernizing our rules for today’s economy and technologies. Doing so will help us to achieve our three-part mission: protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation."

Commissioner Peirce’s response was typically critical, noting “The Agenda continues to shun issues at the core of our mission in favor of shiny objects outside our jurisdiction. We used to focus on companies’ disclosure of economically material information; we now focus on disclosure of hot-button matters outside our remit.”

Meanwhile, the Senate unanimously confirmed Jaime E. Lizárraga and Mark Toshiro Uyeda to serve as SEC Commissioners. Lizárraga will fill the seat of departing Democratic Commissioner Allison Herren Lee, whose term ended June 5 (Lee continued to serve until her successor’s confirmation), and Uyeda will fill the seat vacated in January by former Republican Commissioner Elad Roisman. 

According to a White House statement, Lizárraga previously served as a Senior Advisor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) while Uyeda has over 25 years of experience in corporate and securities law, including as a career attorney at the SEC for 15 years, but has most recently been detailed to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs as Securities Counsel on the Committee’s Minority Staff.  With the Lizárraga and Uyeda confirmations the SEC will now have a full complement of five Commissioners just in time for what’s shaping up to be a very busy regulatory six months ahead!