Tell President Obama: No More Mary Jo’s at the SEC

Step 1 of 3

No more Mary Jo Whites at the SEC

    Not ? Click here.

    We do not share your email address without your permission. Rootstrikers and Demand Progress may send you updates on this and other important campaigns by email. If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from any of these email lists, you may do so.

    Privacy Policy

    When President Obama nominated Mary Jo White to be SEC Chair, he told the American people she would be a tough regulator that Wall Street criminals “don’t want to mess with.”

    Instead, as Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote in her 13-page open letter this month, Mary Jo White’s tenure has been a complete disappointment. In the past two years she has:

    • Repeatedly voted for “get out of jail free” waivers to big banks that break the law.
    • Took the rule fighting “dark money” political spending off the SEC’s agenda with virtually no explanation – the most requested rule by investors in the SEC’s history!
    • Delayed and weakened key regulations required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. Her office is even called “the cheese cellar,” because it’s “where policy goes to age.”
    • Trapped the SEC in a thicket of conflicts of interest. Her decades defending Wall Street and her husband’s white collar defense practice mean she often can’t cast votes, leaving the SEC’s Democratic and Republican commissioners stuck in a 2-2 deadlock.

    White’s failures have been no surprise. As revealed in Rootstrikers’ new report, White not only spent a majority of her career defending Wall Street as a high powered corporate lawyer, she’s consistently opposed tough enforcement of the rules against white collar criminals on Wall Street.

    Far from recognizing the need for strong regulation, Mary Jo White has complained for decades about a “feeding frenzy” of enforcement – even during the “anything goes” era of reckless risk-taking before the financial crisis that tanked the global economy!

    President Obama MUST NOT make this harmful mistake again. Sign the petition to tell him to nominate regulators to the SEC who aren’t afraid to be tough on Wall Street criminals.

    Petition to President Obama and the U.S. Senate:

    Mary Jo White's disappointing time as SEC Chair has been the predictable outcome of a career exemplifying the SEC's troubling revolving door culture. Please do not nominate or confirm another weak-on-Wall-Street revolving door commissioner. Instead, select and confirm strong regulators who are willing to enforce the rules, even on the biggest banks.