Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2012

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRAPO. Madam President, as the leader has indicated, I will withdraw this amendment at the conclusion of this colloquy, but I want to make sure my colleagues understand what the amendment does.

This amendment prohibits any funds from being used by the CFTC to promulgate any final rules under title VII until the agency substantiates that those rules are economically beneficial, adhere to congressional intent, provide end users with a clear exemption from margin requirements, and set clear bounds on the overseas application of derivatives requirements.

While there is not yet a bipartisan agreement to go forward with this amendment at this time, there is a bipartisan list of issues that regulators need to address. They need to protect end users from burdensome margin requirements. Margin requirements proposed by regulators currently ignore the clear intent of Congress not to impose them on end users. They need to limit the extraterritorial application of title VII per congressional intent in sections 722 and 764. This is also being addressed in the House of Representatives. They need to encourage greater coordination and harmonization between the SEC, the CFTC, and international regulators to seek broad harmonization of cross-border issues, and they need to ensure that the new rules are subject to robust and quantitative assessment of the costs and benefits.

The regulators involved in our rulemaking process should know that Congress is going to closely monitor how they proceed, and we expect a change in course. If we don't get that change in course, then we will need to return to this kind of legislation.

I wish to thank Senator Stabenow for working with me. She and many other Senators across the aisle have indicated a willingness to help try to achieve these objectives and to work together to try to make this happen.

With that, I yield my time to Senator Stabenow.

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Mr. CRAPO. Madam President,

The amendment prohibits any funds from being used by the CFTC to promulgate any final rules under Title VII until the agency substantiates that those rules are economically beneficia1, adheres to congressional intent to provide end-users with a clear exemption from margin requirements, and sets clear bounds on the overseas application of the derivatives requirements.

While there is not yet bipartisan agreement to go forward with this amendment at this time, there is a bipartisan list of issues that the regulators need to address:

Protect end-users from burdensome margin requirements. Margin requirements proposed by regulators currently ignore the clear intent of Congress not to impose margin on end users.

Limit the extraterritorial application of title VII per Congressional intent in Sections 722 and 764. In the House of Representatives bipartisan legislation was just introduced that sets clear bounds on overseas application of the derivatives requirements, while allowing regulators to stop systemically dangerous transactions intended to evade U.S. requirements.

Encourage greater coordination and harmonization between the SEC, CFTC, and international regulators to seek broad harmonization of cross-border issues.

Ensure new rules are subject to robust and quantitative assessment of costs and benefits.

The regulators involved in the rulemaking process should understand that Congress is going to closely monitor how they proceed and we expect a change in course.

If the regulators ignore congressional intent and fail to adequately harmonize their rules with each other and with their foreign counterparts, then it is my intention to revisit this amendment and push for a vote.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that my amendment be withdrawn.

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