WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, today introduced Paul Atkins at his nomination hearing to be Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Partial Transcript:
Thank you Mr. Chairman, and it’s a great honor for me to be with such a wonderful group of nominees today.
I have a particular pleasure today, though, to introduce a longtime friend of mine. We were roommates in law school. Actually, when I talked with President Trump about Paul, when he was considering his nomination, I begged him not to hold that against Paul, and he certainly didn’t.
But as I said, I’ve known him for a very long time. And since before I met Paul, I knew about him, and he has been known forever for his character, for his intellect, and his unrelenting work ethic.
Today, those qualities are going to serve the American people exceptionally well. Given the many years of private practice and his prior service as SEC Commissioner, Paul has developed an unmatched understanding of financial markets and their regulatory challenges.
And I’ve known Paul not only as a friend, but as a client, because I’ve called Paul and his team in to help the companies that I’ve invested in navigate some of the great challenges of the financial services’ regulatory environment, and his skill has been unwavering.
Paul knows better than anyone that our nation’s global competitiveness fundamentally rests on the strength of our capital markets. He’s a true public servant and a great American.
And if you have the opportunity to meet his three sons—two of them are here today that he and Sarah have raised together—you’ll know that Paul is a man of the highest caliber and character.
Our nation deserves a man of Paul’s caliber steering the SEC. I urge all my colleagues to support his confirmation. Thank you.
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