Senate panel votes for 3 new SEC commissioners

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Banking Committee on Wednesday approved three candidates to fill spots on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, clearing the way for a vote by the full Senate.

Luis Aguilar, a law partner at McKenna Long & Aldridge, and Elisse Walter, a senior executive with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, were approved for the vacant Democratic seats on the commission.

Troy Paredes, a professor at Washington University School of Law, was approved for the open Republican spot.

The five-member SEC has been operating with three Republican commissioners since February: Chairman Christopher Cox, Paul Atkins and Kathleen Casey. Atkins' term expired this month but he has said he would stay until his successor takes over.

If confirmed, the three nominees would most likely enter the debate on how to oversee investment banks and help craft credit rating agency reforms in wake of the subprime mortgage crisis.

They would also be joining the investor protection agency as it works on a plan for the general acceptance of international accounting standards in the United States.

Cox told reporters he did not think commission work would be delayed given the candidates' experience in securities policy and regulation. "I don't think there will be a steep learning curve," the SEC chairman said.

SENATE PANEL APPROVES NOMINEES FOR TREASURY, GINNIE MAE

The banking committee approved the nomination of Neel Kashkari to be a second assistant secretary of the Treasury for international affairs. Kashkari was nominated as part of a plan to expand the Treasury's activities in working with other countries and multilateral institutions.

Kashkari, a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs & Co, which U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson previously headed, now advises Paulson on various issues, including the U.S. housing market.

The banking panel also approved Joseph Murin to run the federal government's largest mortgage-securitization enterprise. If confirmed, Murin would take the helm at Ginnie Mae, which bundles government-backed home loans and sells them to Wall Street as mortgage bonds.

Murin, who has more than 35 years experience in the mortgage and banking industries, would preside over Ginnie Mae at a time when the federal agency is beginning to reclaim a larger share of the market for 30-year, fixed-rate loans.

Donald Marron was approved by the senate panel to be a member of the White House's Council of Economic advisers. He had been deputy director of the Congressional Budget Office, Congress' nonpartisan budget watchdog agency, since 2005 and served as CBO's acting director in 2006.

Prior to that, Marron had served on the Council of Economic Advisers as chief economist and also had been chief economist at the congressional Joint Economic Committee.

The approved nominees, who also include candidates for Housing and Urban Development, next go to the full Senate for confirmation.

(Reporting by Rachelle Younglai, David Lawder, Patrick Rucker; Editing by Gary Hill)