Trump SEC pick clears banking panel with Dem support

The Senate Banking Committee approved Jay Clayton, President Trump’s nominee to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, on Tuesday, with some bipartisan support.

The Banking panel voted to recommend Jay Clayton 15 to 8, with Democratic Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Jon Tester (Mont.) and Mark Warner (Va.) voting for the nominee with all the committee Republicans.

Clayton, former partner at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, has spent more than 20 years working for Wall Street titans on mergers, acquisitions and federal regulatory compliance.

{mosads}Heitkamp and Tester are both up for reelection in 2018 in states that President Trump won in 2016, while Warner started a new term this year.

Other Democrats expressed concerns that Clayton was too close to Wall Street to police it effectively.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), the Banking Committee’s ranking Democrat, voted against Clayton, though he, like Heitkamp and Donnelly, is up for reelection in 2018 in a state Trump won last year. Brown, a prominent Senate progressive, said Clayton would be forced to recuse himself from too many important cases due to conflicts of interest.

“The recusals will pile up for Mr. Clayton in the most complicated cases,” said Brown. “It looks like the president was wrong when he said that he would not let Wall Street get away with murder.”

With more bipartisan support than most of Trump’s Cabinet nominees, Clayton appears to be a lock for confirmation by the full Senate later this month.

Corrected at 11:34 a.m.