Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last year recommended Luis Aguilar and Elisse Walter to the president to fill the empty SEC seats.

The Bush administration announced late Friday afternoon that it plans to fill the two open Democratic slots on the Securities and Exchange Commission with two securities lawyers: Luis Aguilar, a partner with McKenna Long & Aldridge in Atlanta, and Elisse Walter, a senior executive vice president at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, according to Dow Jones newswires.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last year recommended Aguilar and Walter to the president to fill the empty SEC seats. The five-person commission cannot have more than three members from the president's party, which is what it has now.

If Aguilar is confirmed by the Senate, he would fill the seat previously held by Roel Campos, with a term expiring in June 2010. Walter would serve until mid-2012, completing the remaining term of Annette Nazareth, according to the report.

Aguilar, a former SEC attorney, reportedly spent nearly ten years serving as a general counsel of a unit of Invesco PLC (IVZ), an investment advisory firm. In 2003 he left to join the law firm Alston & Bird.

Walter held her current post at Finra's predecessor, the National Association of Securities Dealers, according to the news service. She previously was general counsel of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the deputy director of the SEC's corporation finance division.