Commodity Exchange Act and Securities Exchange Act Amendments

Floor Speech

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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I would first like to thank Congresswoman Moore, as well as Congresswoman Fudge, for their efforts to craft the text of this bill which represents a dramatic improvement from a similar bill that was considered in the Financial Services Committee 18 months ago.

At that time, Commodity Futures Trading Commission--that is, the CFTC--Chairman Gary Gensler warned that providing such a broad interaffiliate exemption from the requirement to clear derivatives could harm its efforts to regulate the market.

Since that time, however, the authors of this legislation have significantly tailored the language, incorporating several technical edits provided by the CFTC, and the measure now only extends the interaffiliate exemption to instances when the commercial risk of an exempt end user is being hedged or mitigated.

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Ms. WATERS. After conversations with CFTC Chairman Massad and following this action by the regulator, I felt comfortable having H.R. 5471 be considered under a suspension of the House rules.

Now, I have heard from several companies that, while the CFTC's actions are welcome, they still need the legal certainty that only H.R. 5471 could provide.

On the other side, of course, I have heard concerns that if we pass this bill we may be binding the CFTC's hands to deal with a problem that could arise in the future.

I believe that people on both sides of this issue are working in good faith and want to help rebuild our economy. Again, I applaud Congresswoman Moore's efforts to improve this bill.

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