Following the House of Representatives’ passage of a bill to renew the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee, criticized the measure as an effort to hamstring regulators’ ability to regulate the complex and important derivatives marketplace.
Waters blasted the legislation as a multifaceted Republican attempt to roll back Wall Street Reform by opening up overseas loopholes for big banks, imposing heavy administrative burdens on our financial regulators, and exposing our financial regulators to endless litigation.

Waters released the following statement:

“In short, this bill would obstruct Wall Street’s cop, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, from doing its job. Under the guise of reauthorizing the CFTC, Republicans have passed a bill that undermines its regulatory authority, imposes new procedural requirements on an overburdened and underfunded agency, and ultimately hamstrings the Commission’s ability to protect the American people.

This legislation is part of an ongoing, multifaceted Republican effort to undercut financial reform laws and regulations that protect consumers, investors and the economy. That’s why it should come as no surprise that Koch Industries, for instance, spent $2.8 million lobbying to ensure the passage of this bill.

The playbook is well-known: create huge loopholes and carve-outs for special interests, while simultaneously underfunding the agency with the authority to ensure compliance with the law.

I’m disappointed that Republicans have undermined the agency charged with protecting farmers, manufacturers, municipalities, pension funds and retirees in favor of helping Wall Street banks.”

Provisions in the legislation would impede the CFTC’s enforcement powers by allowing bank operations to substitute Dodd-Frank protections in favor of lenient, foreign rules in foreign markets, even though that risk may be imported into the U.S. Additionally, the bill imposes burdensome cost-benefit analysis requirements, despite the CFTC’s current policy of considering stakeholders, markets, and many other factors in its decisions.

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