SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda defends quorum rule revisions

The Securities and Exchange Commission is down to two commissioners. One of them now says that’s no reason to panic. On October 12, 2026, SEC Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda wrote a letter to the Financial Times defending recent changes to the agency’s quorum rule. His core argument is that the SEC’s mission has not changed, even though the commission looks noticeably emptier than it did a few weeks ago. Commissioner Hester Peirce has departed, and the agency is now operating with two members while three seats sit vacant. What the rule change actually does The SEC adopted the amendments on September 30, 2026. They took effect on October 2, the same date the commission dropped to two members. The revision addresses a specific scenario. If the other sitting commissioners are disqualified from a matter because of ethics rules or conflicts of interest, a single eligible commissioner can now establish a quorum on that matter. Uyeda framed the change as an operational fix, not a philosophical shift. In his letter, he argued that the amendments preserve how the agency already worked while spelling out more clearly how quorum is handled in edge cases. Why critics have something to chew on The a...