Senate Banking Committee chairman Tim Johnson, D-S.D., will not seek reelection and will retire when his term expires in 2014, he announced Tuesday.
“I will be 68 years-old at the end of this term and it is time for me to say good-bye,” Johnson told constituents at the University of South Dakota, his alma mater. “I will not be running for re-election to the United State Senate in 2014 or any other office. I look forward to serving the remaining two years as the country is facing difficult times on many fronts and I will work every day to find a bipartisan solution to these challenges.”
The third-term senator, who suffered a stroke in 2006, has been holding the gavel through a major financial crisis and a litany of regulatory changes in the financial services industry. He has also had a voice in transportation finance, and was among a group of lawmakers who successfully lobbied to restore transportation funding to the continuing resolution to fund the U.S. government that passed last week.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. is the next in line to assume the chair based on seniority, but Reed is also in position to possibly take the chairmanship of the Armed Services Committee and might choose not to lead the Banking Committee.
“It’s not clear to me whether that’s what he would choose,” said a securities lobbyist who preferred not to be identified.
In that case, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., could make a run at the chair. But Schumer is chair of the Rules Committee. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. is after Schumer, but he chairs the Foreign Relations Committee.
The next highest ranking member on the committee is Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-N.J.
Chuck Samuels, a lawyer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC, said a key change that comes with a change of chairmanship is a committee staff shake up but that it is unclear how it might affect municipal securities because they have not been a committee focus recently.
“It is right at the margins of their focus,” Samuels said.
Another possibility would be a Republican takeover of the Senate. In that case, current ranking minority member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, might grab the gavel.
“I would assume, all other things being equal, that Crapo would become chairman, said Samuels.
