According to the Wall Street Journal, the Senate seems likely to vote the current nominee for chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Timothy Massad, into the position sometime next month.

Former CFTC chairman Gary Gensler stepped down earlier this month; Timothy Massad has been nominated to take over for the current interim Commissioner, Mark Wetjen.

While this clears up a bit of the uncertainty around the CFTC, there are still many concerns regarding the state of the CFTC with Gensler gone.

Gensler had a reputation for being extremely hard on banks in terms of regulation, possibly to a flaw, as his rulemaking became the subject of several lawsuits during his time. While democratic lawmakers are hoping to see Timothy Massad keep a close watch on banks, republican lawmakers are hoping to see a softer side of the CFTC.

Tomothy Massad himself has noted that he will have to be diligent in making sure the CFTC isn’t taken advantage of during this transition period. The Senate will also be voting in two other nominees as commissioners; the CFTC is currently operating with only 3 of the 5 commissioners that are supposed to run it.

Interestingly, with Bart Chilton leaving the CFTC soon, this will mark the first time the CFTC, originally created to monitor commodity trading and hedging within the agricultural industry, will be without a chairman or commissioner with a background in agriculture.