President Donald Trump nominated two commissioners to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Thursday, potentially restoring bipartisan leadership to an agency that has operated with just one commissioner for more than a year.
Nathan Anonick, a Republican Senate Agriculture Committee counsel, and Matthew Rowland, a longtime CFTC attorney who has worked with the committee’s Democratic staff, would join Chairman Michael Selig if confirmed by the Senate. The move could end an unusually long stretch of single-commissioner leadership during a period of sweeping changes in prediction market regulation.
The Nov. 12 White House announcement also included two nominees for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). If both CFTC appointments are confirmed, the five-member commission would have three sitting commissioners, with two vacancies remaining.
Selig welcomed the nominations in a Thursday post on X, congratulating both candidates and expressing his eagerness to work with them if confirmed.
CFTC has operated without a full commission since early 2025
The CFTC last had all five commissioners on Feb. 7, 2025, when former Chairman Rostin Behnam departed. Commissioners Summer Mersinger and Christy Goldsmith Romero followed on May 31, leaving just Caroline Pham and Kristin Johnson.
Johnson departed Sept. 3, leaving Pham, who had served as acting chair since January 2025, as the agency’s sole commissioner. Selig took over on Dec. 22, 2025, after Pham stepped down.
The vacancies have drawn bipartisan concern. In May 2026, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) and ranking member Angie Craig (D-Minn.) urged Trump to nominate a full commission, arguing that broader representation would strengthen the regulator.
The delay also became a political dispute. The White House said in July that Democrats had failed to provide recommendations for vacant seats at the CFTC and SEC. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office subsequently said it had submitted names later that month.
Meanwhile, Selig has made consequential decisions without other commissioners participating in commission votes.
In February 2026, the agency withdrew a Biden-era proposal to ban certain political and sports event contracts, following Selig’s announcement of plans to develop a new prediction market rulebook.
In October, the CFTC proposed explicitly classifying sports, political, cultural and weather event contracts as swaps, a move that has already become a point of contention in ongoing litigation over state authority to regulate prediction markets.
The CFTC has also intervened in the expanding federal-state jurisdictional dispute, including suing Utah over its restrictions on federally regulated prediction markets. It also recently issued an interpretation of impartial-access requirements that could limit exchanges’ ability to impose geographic trading restrictions, despite court orders requiring them to block certain contracts in some states.
Who are Nathan Anonick and Matthew Rowland?
Both nominees have significant regulatory experience, although their backgrounds differ.
According to a Senate Agriculture Committee biography, Anonick serves as professional staff and counsel to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman (R-Ark.), leading the committee majority’s work on CFTC and derivatives policy.
He joined the committee in 2022, having previously worked in Boozman’s Senate office. Before his congressional career, he worked as a resolution policy specialist at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and at a financial-services advocacy and advisory firm.
Rowland brings more than 11 years of experience at the CFTC. According to his LinkedIn profile, he joined the agency in July 2015 as assistant chief counsel for enforcement and has served as senior assistant general counsel for legislative and intergovernmental affairs since March 2020.
He was among the attorneys credited with developing the CFTC’s 2019 Enforcement Manual, which outlined the agency’s enforcement policies and procedures.
A Yale Law School graduate, Rowland also served on the Democratic majority staff of the Senate Agriculture Committee during the 2023–2024 congressional session, according to official Senate records. Anonick served on the Republican minority staff during the same period.
The nominees would fill seats previously held by Behnam and Mersinger. The White House has not announced candidates for the CFTC’s two remaining vacancies.
The SEC nominees announced Thursday are former CFTC Commissioner Kristin Johnson and Steven Levine, who would also require Senate confirmation.