Senator Debbie Stabenow, Chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, today released the below statement following the House vote to advance a bill to reauthorize the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
“I’m pleased to see the House bill includes measures related to customer protections as well as important considerations for end users like farmers, ranchers and small businesses who rely on the markets to hedge risk. These are areas where we can certainly work together.”
“However, we have 21st century markets and we need a 21st century regulator to match. We must make sure the agency responsible for protecting these markets has the resources, authority, staff and technology it needs to be effective - especially in the wake of the 2008 global financial collapse which left 8 million Americans without jobs and devastated hard working families across the country. It is disappointing that the bill provides no additional funding mechanism and adds new layers of administrative burdens, hindering the agency’s ability to do its job and effectively regulate these markets.
“As I’ve said before, the Senate will examine lessons from the past and consider ongoing challenges to the system as we write our bill. We have an important opportunity for market reform, to restore faith in the markets and help ensure they are transparent and functioning as intended – and we intend on doing that in a collaborative and bipartisan way.”