The House urges Trump to appoint a missing CFTC commissioner: Selig as the sole member, CLARITY pending implementation

According to a report by The Block, Glenn Thompson, chair of the House Agriculture Committee, and minority leader Angie Craig have sent a letter to President Trump, asking him to “nominate a complete slate” of bipartisan committee members to fill the long-standing vacancies at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Their rationale is that the CFTC is facing “urgent regulatory issues,” and once the CLARITY Act is passed, it will enter a “major rulemaking process.”

CFTC has five standing commissioners seats; currently only Selig alone

The CFTC has a five-commissioner standing system, and currently only Chair Michael Selig is in office. The other four seats have been vacant since the former acting chair Caroline Pham resigned in December 2025. The House Agriculture Committee leaders explicitly pointed out in the open letter that if the CLARITY Act becomes law, the CFTC will shoulder a large amount of work to draft and implement digital asset rules. It is not realistic for one commissioner to carry regulatory responsibilities at this scale.

CLARITY Act passed in the Senate Banking Committee on 5/14

The CLARITY Act, which was passed by the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on 5/14, clearly divides digital asset regulatory authority between the SEC and the CFTC in the full 309-page draft. When the bill moves into the next stage, the CFTC must have a functioning multi-commissioner structure in order to begin substantive rulemaking. This House Agriculture Committee pressure letter is aimed at the time gap between “bill advancement” and “implementation-side capacity.”

The White House has not yet responded publicly

The Block noted that as of the time of publication, the Trump administration has not publicly stated its plan for nominating CFTC commissioners. The CLARITY Act’s timeline operating in sync with the CFTC commissioner nominations will determine whether the bill can be completed on the transition from passage to execution by year-end. Since Selig took over as CFTC chair in December 2025, he has repeatedly pledged to actively enforce the law and has expressed determination to prosecute hot-button issues such as a surge in allegedly suspicious trades in prediction markets. However, the lack of a deliberative foundation among other commissioners may affect the efficiency of subsequent enforcement.

This article The House urges Trump to fill CFTC commissioner seats: Selig alone, CLARITY waiting to land was first published on Chain News ABMedia.