Democrats pressed President Trump’s pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday over his prior work at the agency in the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis and his plans for the SEC’s future.
Former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins appeared before the Senate Banking Committee alongside several other nominees who the president has tapped to take on roles at financial regulatory agencies.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), the top Democrat on the panel, took aim at Atkins’s track record at the SEC, where he served as a commissioner from 2002-08.
“Mr. Atkins has an almost perfect track record,” Warren said. “He got pretty much everything wrong in the run-up to the biggest financial crash since the Great Depression. That is not a record that deserves promotion.”
“Your job was to spot and head off risks that were building up in financial markets, but you showed staggeringly bad judgment,” she added.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) also voiced concerns about Atkins’s takeaways from the financial crisis, noting the SEC nominee suggested in a previous conversation that misguided regulation was partly to blame.
“There are communities in Atlanta, especially communities that I’m close to and folks that I know and people in my church that still haven’t recovered,” Warnock said. “I mean, we saw a huge transfer of wealth as a result of this crisis.”
“The banks got bailed out. Wall Street got bailed out, but consumers didn’t get bailed out. And I’m asking because you are the nominee at the SEC, and I’m just trying to get an understanding of what you think we need to do differently.”
Atkins argued that the SEC at the time was “focusing on the wrong things” and was “distracted by ancillary issues” rather than those that were important to the marketplace.
Several Democrats also grilled Atkins about his contributions to Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for a second Trump administration created by the Heritage Foundation.
Atkins is listed as a contributor and received a specific shoutout for a chapter on financial regulatory agencies, including the SEC.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) asked Atkins on Thursday whether he would commit to preserving the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), which Project 2025 called to be abolished. The board was created by Congress in the early 2000s to oversee audits of public companies.
Atkins sought to downplay his role in Project 2025, emphasizing that he only participated in a couple phone calls.
When pressed whether he supports abolishing the board, the SEC nominee deferred to Congress, saying, “It’s not in my power; it’s up to you all.”
“The function needs to be done,” he added. “Whether it’s PCAOB or whether it’s folded back into the SEC, the function is vital.”
Atkins also faced questions from Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) about Project 2025’s call for the termination of the Consolidated Audit Trail program, which aims to create a database that would allow regulators to track all trading activity across U.S. markets.
“I commit to looking at the situation the way it is now, what the plans are, how efficient it is, what the costs are going to be,” he said. “They’ve ballooned a lot from what started out and even the mission of it has kind of veered off.”
Trump’s nominee is expected to draw a sharp contrast with Biden-era SEC chair Gary Gensler, who was widely disliked by Republicans and industry.
“You just have to be able to breathe and not be a complete raging lunatic, and you’re going to be the greatest SEC commissioner compared to the last guy,” Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) said.
Most notably, Atkins is expected to take a much friendlier approach toward the crypto community — one that Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) emphasized will ensure “American innovation does not fall further behind.”
“A top priority of my chairmanship will be to work with my fellow commissioners and Congress to provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets through a rational, coherent and principled approach,” Atkins said Thursday.
He previously served as co-chair of the Digital Chamber’s Token Alliance and was a member of the board of directors at Securitize, a tokenization platform. He has stepped down from both roles in recent months, according to a financial disclosure released Tuesday.
As part of an ethics agreement, Atkins also plans to step down as CEO of financial services consultancy Patomak Global Partners and divest his membership interest in the firm.
Financial records show that he and his wife have a net worth of at least $327 million, including a stake of at least $25 million in Patomak, according to Bloomberg.
Updated at 3:22 p.m. EDT
