Business Risk Mitigation and Price Stabilization Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERS of Michigan. Madam Speaker, I now yield myself as much time as I may consume.

I rise today in support of H.R. 634, the Business Risk Mitigation and Price Stabilization Act of 2013. I'm proud to have coauthored this bipartisan legislation with my colleague, Michael Grimm. I appreciate his hard work on this important legislation and his willingness to work across the aisle. I would also like the thank our partners on the Agriculture Committee, Representatives Austin Scott and Mike McIntyre. We all worked together on this bill to keep costs down for families and small businesses for a wide range of goods and services like groceries, air travel, and autos. I would like to thank Chairman Hensarling and Ranking Member Waters for their support on this crucial legislation.

While this bill improves financial regulation, this is truly a Main Street bill. Derivatives end users represent a broad cross section of businesses across our Nation, from farmers worried about the price of fertilizer to manufacturers concerned about fluctuating interest rates. Businesses in all of our districts use derivatives to ensure that they pay a reasonable price for the products they need and keep consumer prices stable no matter what happens in the financial markets. This bill is about protecting businesses across Michigan and the United States that rely on derivatives to responsibly manage risk.

During consideration of the Wall Street Reform, there was bipartisan recognition that regulations to curb excessive risk taking in the financial sector should not stifle job creation in the agriculture or manufacturing industries. Michigan is a State that builds and grows things, and I will continue to fight to make sure that we always will be.

Let me be clear: as a member of the conference committee that approved the final version of the Dodd-Frank Act, I can say with certainty that Wall Street Reform was not written or signed into law to hinder the hardworking folks building autos or growing apples.

End users, companies that use derivative contracts to offset legitimate business risks, were specifically exempted from the clearing requirements, and Congress did not specifically direct regulators to require end users to post margin. Our bipartisan bill simply clarifies congressional intent that nonfinancial end users are exempt from the Dodd-Frank margin requirements.

Forcing nonfinancial end users to post margin could have several negative consequences: unnecessarily increasing prices for consumers across a range of goods, slowing job growth here in the United States, and driving businesses to foreign, less transparent derivatives markets.

Our bill passed the House last year with overwhelming bipartisan support because it is about protecting jobs and clarifying congressional intent, and it passed the House Financial Services Committee earlier this year, as we heard, with unanimous, bipartisan support by a vote of 59-0.

This bill will ensure congressional intent to protect our manufacturing and agricultural industries is carried out. I look forward to this crucial legislation passing the House later today, and I urge my colleagues to support it. I will continue to work to get the Business Risk Mitigation and Price Stabilization Act signed into law.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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