Cox awaits panel’s vote

Rep. Chris Cox is now playing the waiting game, after a U.S. Senate

committee on Tuesday held a hearing but did not vote on whether to

confirm him as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cox was nominated June 1 to lead the SEC. The Senate Committee on

Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs questioned him along with Roel C.

Campos and Annette Nazareth, who are Democratic nominees for seats on

the commission.

The banking committee could vote to confirm the three nominees

Thursday, after which the full Senate would vote.

Cox told the committee he will work to make sure the SEC is

consistent in making and enforcing rules, according to a transcript

of his statement.

“My top priority will be vigorous enforcement of our securities

laws,” Cox said, according to the transcript. He said the commission

must protect investors against fraud and unfair dealing.

Several labor and investor groups, led by the consumer advocacy

organization Public Citizen, on Monday attacked Cox as having a

“strongly anti-investor” Congressional voting record.

A report from Public Citizen claims Cox’s major piece of

securities legislation, the 1995 Private Securities Litigation Reform

Act, made it harder for investors to sue when they lose money from

corporate fraud. He also voted against tougher investor protections

in the 2002 corporate reform bill known as Sarbanes-Oxley and

sponsored other legislation that was against investors’ interests,

the report said.

“Bottom line is the SEC needs a very strong investor advocate at

this time, and Cox has not established a record that shows him to be

an investor advocate. In fact, he’s the opposite,” Public Citizen

spokesman Chris Schmitt said.

Local financial observers, however, discounted the criticisms. The

purpose of Cox’s 1995 securities bill was to stop frivolous lawsuits

by “ambulance chasers” that aren’t good for the market, Orange County

Treasurer-Tax Collector John Moorlach said.

“Chris has historically always been free enterprise,” he said.

“Let the marketplace take care of itself, and it usually does....

When those egregious fraud cases come up, you still have remedies,

because you’ve got criminal charges.”

Some have described Cox as too friendly toward business, but to

Orange County Taxpayers Assn.

President Reed Royalty, that’s a recommendation for Cox as SEC

chairman.

“If there’s anything we need in government these days, it’s people

that are friendly toward business,” Royalty said.

“If he’s friendly to business, that makes him even better

qualified, in my opinion.”