{ "id": "R44733", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R44733", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 573666, "date": "2017-09-29", "retrieved": "2017-10-04T13:54:05.370136", "title": "Commodity Futures Trading Commission: Proposed Reauthorization in the 115th Congress", "summary": "The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), created in 1974, regulates futures, most options, and swaps markets. The CFTC administers the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA; P.L. 74-765, 7 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a71 et seq.), enacted in 1936, to monitor trading in certain derivatives markets. The CFTC was last reauthorized in 2008 as part of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act (P.L. 110-246), which included authorization of appropriations through FY2013. Although the underlying authority in the statute to administer programs does not have an explicit expiration, the authorization of appropriations only applied through FY2013. As a consequence, the authorization of appropriations assumes Congress will periodically act to authorize future appropriations. It has not been uncommon, however, for Congress to continue to fund the CFTC for several years beyond the expiration of previous authorizations of appropriations. \nThe current CFTC reauthorization process is the first since the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act; P.L. 111-203) brought the roughly $400 trillion U.S. swaps market under regulatory oversight. Historically, the reauthorization process has often been one of the principal vehicles for modifying the CFTC\u2019s regulatory authority and evaluating the efficacy of its regulatory programs. \nIn the 115th Congress, a CFTC reauthorization bill\u2014H.R. 238, the Commodity End-User Relief Act\u2014that also would make changes to the CEA passed the House on January 12, 2017, and was referred to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry on January 17, 2017. H.R. 238 shares substantial similarities with the 114th Congress CFTC reauthorization bill, H.R. 2289, that the House passed, but differs in some respects from the Senate Agriculture Committee reauthorization bill, S. 2917, which did not see Senate floor action in the 114th Congress.\nThis report examines selected major H.R. 238 provisions that would \nauthorize appropriations for the CFTC of $250 million for each of FY2017 through FY2021. Both prior reauthorization bills introduced in the 114th Congress would have authorized \u201csuch sums as are necessary\u201d to carry out the CEA, rather than a specific amount. The CFTC requested $330 million for FY2017 and received $250 million. \nexpand the current 5 cost-benefit analysis provisions in the CEA to 12 considerations. It would add a requirement that the CFTC conduct quantitative as well as qualitative assessments, which appears to mark a change from previous practice. \nmodify the definition of a financial entity, potentially enabling a wider range of companies to claim certain exemptions from the Dodd-Frank derivatives requirements. \npotentially broaden the bona fide hedging definition to allow anticipated, as well as current, risks to be hedged, which might increase the number of swaps that qualify as hedges. Bona fide hedging is often used to determine which swaps count toward registration requirements, position limits, large trader reporting, and other regulatory requirements. \nmandate that, starting 18 months from enactment, the regulatory requirements of the eight largest foreign swaps markets be considered comparable to those of the United States\u2014unless the CFTC issued a rule finding that any of those foreign jurisdictions\u2019 requirements were not comparable to U.S. requirements.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R44733", "sha1": "79444bb7a1e4de23729f42693068bd53189af594", "filename": "files/20170929_R44733_79444bb7a1e4de23729f42693068bd53189af594.html", "images": {} }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R44733", "sha1": "3eb1f1a1b28b49e8be87f70e58878746f07f24dc", "filename": "files/20170929_R44733_3eb1f1a1b28b49e8be87f70e58878746f07f24dc.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4831, "name": "Derivatives" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4870, "name": "Banking" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4898, "name": "Financial Market Regulation" } ] }, { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 458135, "date": "2017-01-10", "retrieved": "2017-01-13T15:42:00.500554", "title": "Commodity Futures Trading Commission: Proposed Reauthorization in the 115th Congress", "summary": "The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), created in 1974, regulates futures, most options, and swaps markets. The CFTC administers the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA; P.L. 74-765, 7 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a71 et seq.), enacted in 1936 to monitor trading in certain derivatives markets. The CFTC was last reauthorized in 2008 as part of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act (P.L. 110-246), which included authorization of appropriations through FY2013. Although the underlying authority in the statute to administer programs does not have an explicit expiration, the authorization of appropriations only applies through FY2013. As a consequence, the authorization of appropriations assumes Congress will periodically need to act to authorize future appropriations. It has not been uncommon, however, for Congress to continue to fund the CFTC for several years beyond the expiration of previous authorizations of appropriations. \nThe current CFTC reauthorization process is the first since the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank; P.L. 111-203) brought the roughly $400 trillion U.S. swaps market under regulatory oversight. Historically, the reauthorization process has often been one of the principal vehicles for modifying the CFTC\u2019s regulatory authority and evaluating the efficacy of its regulatory programs. \nIn the 115th Congress, a CFTC reauthorization bill that also would make changes to the CEA\u2014H.R. 238, the Commodity End-User Relief Act\u2014was introduced on January 4, 2017, by Representative Michael Conaway. The House Rules Committee has scheduled a hearing on H.R. 238 for January 10, 2017. H.R. 238 shares substantial similarities with a CFTC reauthorization bill that the House passed in the 114th Congress, H.R. 2289. A number of the provisions in H.R. 238 were not previously included in the Senate Agriculture Committee\u2019s prior CFTC reauthorization bill, S. 2917, which was marked up and ordered to be reported in the 114th Congress but did not see Senate floor action.\nThis report examines the following selected major provisions of H.R. 238:\nH.R. 238 would authorize appropriations for the CFTC of $250 million for each of the FY2017 through FY2021. Both prior reauthorization bills in the 114th Congress would have authorized \u201csuch sums as are necessary\u201d to carry out the CEA, rather than a specific amount. The CFTC requested $330 million for FY2017. \nH.R. 238 would expand the current 5 cost-benefit analysis provisions in the CEA to 12 considerations. It would add a requirement that the CFTC conduct quantitative as well as qualitative assessments, which appears to mark a change from previous practice. (S. 2917 did not include a similar provision.)\nH.R. 238 would modify the definition of a financial entity, potentially enabling a wider range of companies to claim certain exemptions from the Dodd-Frank derivatives requirements (substantially similar to H.R. 2289). (S. 2917 took a different approach to modifying this definition. It would have directed the CFTC to issue a new rule defining the term predominantly engaged in financial activities to exclude hedging transactions.)\nH.R. 238 would potentially broaden the bona fide hedging definition to allow anticipated, as well as current, risks to be hedged, which might increase the number of swaps that qualify as hedges. Bona fide hedging is often used to determine which swaps count toward registration requirements, position limits, large trader reporting, and other regulatory requirements. (S. 2917 was substantially the same on this topic as H.R. 238). \nH.R. 238 would mandate that, starting 18 months from enactment, the regulatory requirements of the eight largest foreign swaps markets be considered comparable to those of the United States\u2014unless the CFTC issued a rule finding that any of those foreign jurisdictions\u2019 requirements were not comparable to U.S. requirements.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R44733", "sha1": "48886fbcb7876db7099879887ada1a9e78ca7c2d", "filename": "files/20170110_R44733_48886fbcb7876db7099879887ada1a9e78ca7c2d.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R44733", "sha1": "3e7f984f8dcec615365040e379fde8a5f7495f18", "filename": "files/20170110_R44733_3e7f984f8dcec615365040e379fde8a5f7495f18.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4831, "name": "Derivatives" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4870, "name": "Banking" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4898, "name": "Financial Market Regulation" } ] } ], "topics": [ "Appropriations", "Economic Policy", "Legislative Process" ] }