SEC Announces Spring 2025 Agenda

• On September 4, 2025, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs published the semi-annual Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, which includes the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Spring 2025 agenda.
• The agenda is an indication of SEC regulatory priorities under Chair Atkins.

On September 4, 2025, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs published the semi-annual Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, which includes the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Spring 2025 agenda. The agenda is the first released since the November 2024 presidential election and reflects the priorities of SEC Chair Paul Atkins who, in a statement on the new agenda, indicated that it represents “a new day at the [SEC]” and a “renewed focus on supporting innovation, capital formation, market efficiency, and investor protection.”

The SEC’s Spring 2025 agenda is divided into three stages of rulemaking:

1. “prerules,” which are generally recommendations to seek public comment on certain topics to help the SEC shape its approach to potential rulemakings;
2. proposed rules, which are recommendations that the SEC issue a notice of proposed rulemaking, subject to public comment; and
3. final rules, which are rules for which a notice of proposed rulemaking has been publicly filed and public comments have been received.

The current agenda includes three rulemakings in the prerule stage, 18 rulemakings in the proposed rule stage, and two rulemakings in the final rule stage. The two rulemakings in the final rule stage (Financial Data Transparency Act Joint Data Standards and Customer Identification Programs for Registered Investment Advisers and Exempt Reporting Advisers) are joint rulemakings with other government departments or agencies. The SEC is essentially working from a clean slate.

The themes underlying the Spring 2025 agenda focus on deregulation, reducing disclosure and compliance burdens, and crypto policy to “facilitate capital formation, including by simplifying pathways for raising capital and investor access to private businesses.” New proposals on the agenda broadly cover a review of current disclosure practices and include proposed rulemakings on:

• foreign private issuer (“FPI”) eligibility (to account for developments in the FPI population in the last two decades);[1]
• shelf registration modernization (to reduce compliance burdens and further facilitate capital formation);
• enhancement of emerging growth company accommodations and simplification of filer status for reporting companies;
• updates to exempt offering pathways (to simplify the pathways for raising capital for, and investor access to, private businesses);
• the Rule 144 safe harbor (to increase instances in which the safe harbor would be available);
• rationalization of disclosure practices (to facilitate material disclosure by companies and shareholders’ access to that information);
• shareholder proposal modernization (to reduce compliance burdens for registrants);[2] and
• crypto assets and crypto market structure (to help clarify the regulatory framework and provide greater certainty to the market).

The agenda reflects a marked shift away from the Fall 2024 agenda (set by former Chair Gary Gensler), which emphasized disclosure and regulation. The SEC’s rulemaking path is a deliberate one. Each Spring 2025 agenda item at the proposed rule stage notes a notice of proposed rulemaking scheduled for April 2026, meaning that any final rules would follow later in 2026 or 2027, with effective dates most likely applying to disclosures or transactions in 2027.

The agenda is also notable for the items that have been eliminated from the prior agenda, including rulemakings on:

• human capital management disclosure;
• corporate board diversity;
• enhanced disclosure by investment advisers and investment companies on ESG investment practices; and
• incentive-based compensation arrangements at certain financial institutions.

In addition, the new agenda item on rationalization of disclosure practices will provide an opportunity to assess whether rulemakings under former Chair Gensler that require disclosures beyond information that is material to investor decision-making, such as the detail required by Item 1.05 of Form 8-K regarding cybersecurity incidents, should be pared back to focus on material information. Finally, the new agenda reflects a shift away from former Chair Gensler’s focus on digital asset regulation through enforcement and instead contemplates rulemakings in the crypto space.

The SEC’s regulatory agendas are planning documents subject to revision, and they are not binding on the SEC. The timing and ultimate outcome of the proposed rulemakings on the agenda remain to be seen. That being said, the agenda is a notable indication of SEC regulatory priorities under Chair Atkins.