House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), alongside his counterparts, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC), and House Oversight Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), have opened an investigation into the hiring practices of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. According to a statement released on their official website, the inquiry stems from concerns about potential political bias in the hiring process at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The inquiry was spurred by publicized email correspondence suggesting the hiring of Dr. Haoxiang Zhu as the SEC Director of Trading and Markets may have involved consideration of his political leanings. In a statement obtained by the House Judiciary Committee's official website, it reveals an email where Dr. Zhu expressed confidence in his ideological alignment to Chairman Gensler, following a call between the two about Zhu's employment.
Expressed in the released excerpts of a letter to Chairman Gensler, Republicans argue this recruitment approach potentially violates the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which was implemented to insure fair and non-partisan hiring within federal agencies. "According to email correspondence made public in a comment to an SEC rulemaking, the SEC's decision to hire Dr. Haoxiang Zhu, the SEC Director of Trading and Markets, may have been influenced by his political affiliation," the notice specifies.
Chairman Jordan and his colleagues have requested extensive details from Chairman Gensler to explore these allegations further. The documentation sought includes all communications about hiring, firing, or transferring any directors, staff members within the chairman's office, and evaluations involving political affiliations or ideologies since April 17, 2021. This request, as stated, is a part of their ongoing SEC oversight efforts.
The SEC, traditionally a non-partisan entity tasked with enforcing the law against market manipulation and ensuring transparency, now faces scrutiny under an ignis of partisan appointee allegations which could potentially affect the perceived impartiality of the agency. The outcome of this inquiry could have implications not just for the current SEC leadership but also for the ethos of civil service employment across the governmental landscape.
