An impasse was broken last week when the Senate Banking committee voted 14-10, with Chairman Richard Shelby among the opposition, to send Adam Szubin's bid to be the Treasury Department's anti-terrorism chief to the full Senate for confirmation. Others in the Committee's backlog include two nominees for the SEC, two for the Fed, and one for an Export-Import Bank board member, all of whom have had to wait as the Committee went all of 2015 without advancing or rejecting any nominees.

On Tuesday, they will hear testimony from the President's two October picks for the SEC: Lisa Fairfax, who would take the seat of Democrat Luis Aguilar, and Hester Peirce, who would replace Republican Daniel Gallagher. Chair Mary Jo White wants a full set of commissioners as she tries to complete some of her agency's initiatives by year end.

Lisa Fairfax is a professor at George Washington University Law School who previously taught at the University of Maryland and was a lawyer at Ropes & Gray LLP in Boston and Washington. Her scholarly work focuses on corporate governance issues.

Hester Peirce is a think tank scholar for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and was previously a staffer for Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who chairs the Senate Banking Committee. Peirce has been a critic of financial regulations in many areas.