ContextSpeech by Paul S. Atkins, Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Why it mattersThe SEC Chair uses this forum to announce the proposal to rescind the climate disclosure rule.
- Being a public company is too burdensome.
- Fewer firms tap public markets.
- Past rules served narrow agendas, in the speaker's view.
- Allow semiannual instead of quarterly reporting.
- Recalibrate disclosure and speed up access to public markets.
- Rescind the climate disclosure rule.
Read the speech summary
1. Reagan's legacy
Speaking at the Reagan National Economic Forum in Simi Valley, the SEC Chairman, stressing that his views were personal, paid tribute to Ronald Reagan as the United States nears its 250th anniversary. He recalled the economic revival he witnessed as a young lawyer in New York in the 1980s and Reagan's faith in the market, which he credited with spreading free enterprise beyond the Iron Curtain and contributing to the fall of communism. Markets, he argued, need rules clear enough to guide but limited enough not to stifle. He joked that, after three periods at the agency, he finds a proposal for yet another disclosure obligation as frightening as Reagan found an official offering help.
2. A regulator that became an obstacle
Congress gives the SEC three linked goals: protecting investors, keeping markets fair and efficient, and helping companies raise capital. In his view, previous commissions piled on disclosure duties unrelated to these aims and to the reasonable investor standard, making listings costly, litigious and politicised. Between 1994 and his return as Chairman, the number of US-listed companies fell by about 40%. Hostility toward digital assets drove innovators abroad, treating the technology rather than bad actors as the problem.
3. The new agenda
Following the administration's goal of making the country the leading crypto hub, the SEC launched Project Crypto, now shared with the CFTC, to modernise rules for on-chain markets, clarified which digital assets are securities and is preparing an exemption for tokenised listed shares and guidance for on-chain trading systems. He and the CFTC chairman are working to end overlapping oversight between the two agencies. To revive initial public offerings, the SEC has proposed letting companies report quarterly or every six months, recalibrating disclosure and easing access to markets, and on the day of the speech it proposed withdrawing the previous climate disclosure rule, arguing that the agency must serve all investors rather than particular political goals. He presented harmonisation with the CFTC as turning a zone of unclear jurisdiction into fertile ground for new businesses, and said the agency is acting with both rigour and restraint across its whole mandate.
4. Conclusion
He described these steps as a beginning. Recalling the jobs and lower inflation of the Reagan years, he said the question is not whether Americans can build new prosperity but whether regulators are willing to let them, and voiced confidence that the agency will keep American markets strong for the coming 250 years. He closed by quoting Reagan's call, made at the same library, for a new beginning for citizens not yet sharing in prosperity.