Third CFTC Commissioner Announces Plans to Leave Agency

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) could be left with a single member sometime before the end of the year, as three current members have announced their intention to leave.

Commissioner Kristin Johnson announced Wednesday (May 21) that she plans to leave the CFTC later this year, Bloomberg reported Thursday (May 22).

Commissioners Summer Mersinger and Christy Goldsmith Romero announced earlier that they plan to leave at the end of May, according to the report.

Meanwhile, a Senate confirmation hearing has not yet been scheduled for President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as chairman of the CFTC, Brian Quintenz, according to the report.

The agency’s acting chairman, Caroline Pham, has said she plans to leave the CFTC when Quintenz is confirmed, per the report.

Depending on when Johnson leaves the CFTC, the agency could be left with only Pham or Quintenz as a member, the report said.

CFTC spokesperson Taylor Foy told Bloomberg that the agency has functioned in the past with two commissioners and no party majority.

“Vacancies do not impact the commission’s ability to vote on agency matters or the day-to-day work of CFTC divisions,” Foy said, per the report.

In a Wednesday statement announcing her departure from the agency, Johnson said she has completed her full term as a commissioner and decided to step down later this year.

“When I accepted the nomination to serve as a CFTC commissioner, I requested a three-year leave of absence from Emory University School of Law where I serve as Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law,” Johnson said, adding that she was sworn in to serve as a commissioner on March 30, 2022.

Mersinger announced May 14 that she decided to step down from the CFTC at the end of May to pursue new opportunities. The Blockchain Association, a crypto industry trade group, said the same day in a press release that Mersinger will become its CEO on June 2.

Goldsmith Romero announced Feb. 26 that she will step down from the commission and retire from federal service, and said May 16 that she will do so May 31.