Washington, D.C. – Dennis Kelleher, Co-Founder, President and CEO of Better Markets, issued the following statement in connection with a letter sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alerting the agency that it must reopen the comment period on the proposal to deprive investors of quarterly reporting at public companies:
“The SEC’s notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register to reduce financial reporting to investors from quarterly to semiannually had an incorrect email address for the public to submit comments. While many have commented on this proposed rollback of critical disclosures, there can be little doubt that some comments from the public were submitted to the incorrect email and therefore not received by the SEC. Therefore, the SEC must reopen the comment period to allow the public to have an opportunity to determine if their comment was received by the SEC and, if not, then have an opportunity to submit comments to a properly working email address. Without remedying this error, any effort to consider, much less adopt, a final rule will be irredeemably infirm under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and vulnerable to legal action.
“When the SEC was faced with a similar error in the comment filing system in 2022, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others demanded that the SEC take action to remedy their mistake. As a result, the SEC—with Commissioners Peirce and Uyeda voting in favor—alerted the public and reopened rule proposals to allow the public to cure any errors in comment submission caused by the Commission’s mistake. The same must be done today.
“Importantly, despite the error related to the semiannual proposal comment submission instructions, retail investors have flooded the SEC with letters expressing their objections. More than 200,000 people submitted comment letters to the SEC—more than any other rulemaking in the agency’s history. And 99% of them oppose the SEC’s proposal. That makes reopening the comment period all the more important because the public clearly wants to let the SEC know what they think about this proposal. The SEC must enable all Americans, including those who might have submitted comments to the incorrect email address, to have a meaningful opportunity to comment. Only reopening the comment period after posting all comments received will ensure that every voice can be heard as required by uniform SEC practice, the APA and related laws.”
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Better Markets is a non-profit, non-partisan, and independent organization founded in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to promote the public interest in the financial markets, support the financial reform of Wall Street and make our financial system work for all Americans again. Better Markets works with allies—including many in finance—to promote pro-market, pro-business and pro-growth policies that help build a stronger, safer financial system that protects and promotes Americans’ jobs, savings, retirements and more. To learn more, visit www.bettermarkets.org.
