The American Feed Industry Association signed onto a letter in support of full funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Addressed to the Agriculture Conference Committee, the organizations that signed the letter support President Obama’s funding request of $308 million, and at minimum, supports the request for $240 million in Senate funding.
AFIA says the funding is seen as crucial to CFTC, whose responsibilities have expanded in light of the Dodd-Frank Act. The new responsibilities include oversight of approximately $280 trillion in previously unregulated domestic swaps markets.
According to AFIA, the proposed House funding freeze at the prior year level of approximately $170 million would leave CFTC drastically underfunded, which would “jeopardize market stability and integrity, and threaten the confidence of market participants who use these markets for bona fide hedging purposes.” Without the funding, it would also be difficult for CFTC to enforce new limits on speculation, fueling instability in commodity prices.
