The House could vote this evening on the Republican-backed bill to reauthorize the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, overseer of the derivatives markets. The White House threatened a veto of the bill last week. Besides renewing the operating authority of CFTC, the bill creates new safeguards for customers’ funds held by trading houses, relaxes regulations on so-called end users, and makes it more difficult for the five-member commission to write new regulations.
In its June 2 veto threat, the White House said the bill, drafted and approved by the House Agriculture Committee, imposes procedural obstacles on the agency, would undercut the CFTC’s own steps to address end-user concerns, and “offers no solution to address the present inadequacy of the agency’s funding.” The administration prefers a fee on transactions regulated by CFTC.
Some 44 groups support passage of the bill, said the House Agriculture Committee, including power utilities, the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the United Methodist Church.
Statutory authority for the CFTC expired on Sept. 30, 2013. The House passed a reauthorization bill last year. It died in the Senate in election-year gridlock. The Senate Agriculture Committee has not acted on CFTC reauthorization this year. The Democratic leader on the House Agriculture Committee, Collin Peterson, opposed the new limits on CFTC activity proposed by the House bill, HR 2289.
Representative are likely to dispose of almost all of the House Agriculture Committee’s legislative agenda today. Besides the CFTC bill, votes are scheduled on three non-controversial bills handled by the committee: HR 2088, to reauthorize the Grain Standards Act; HR 2051, to reauthorize the mandatory reporting of sales prices of livestock; and, HR 2394, to reauthorize the National Forest Foundation. The bills will be considered under a format that limits debate to 40 minutes, bars any amendments and requires a two-thirds vote to pass.