Agriculture

This bill is an extremely partisan proposal, stands little chance of even being brought up on the House floor, and will rightly be disregarded by both the Senate and the President. This draft proposal only serves to underscore the desperate need for bipa

Dodd-Frank expanded CFTCs oversight 8-fold from the $37 trillion futures market to the over-the-counter swaps market -- a domestic market of over $300 trillion in notional value. So just when the CFTC needs to scale up, theyre being slapped with deep cuts that strangle their ability to safeguard against another financial collapse.

The 41% cut from the President's $308 million budget request for the CFTC is unconscionable. It's designed to cripple the CFTC.

The $25 million cut to the CFTC will have drastic effects on the American economy and will harm the American taxpayer. 4 years ago, our financial system failed. Over 8 million jobs evaporated. Millions lost their homes. Unregulated swaps played a critical role in the 2008 financial meltdown for instance, the near-failure of AIG was triggered by its substantial swap business. Dodd-Frank got to the root of the problem by charging the CFTC with swap market oversight.

Let us stop and think about what this says about our government.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is on the front lines of bringing trust back into the market. Every day it is working to assure that the futures and swaps market operates with integrity, and away from the darkness which it operated in for years. With the hundreds of trillions of dollars that make up the swaps market, I strongly believe that this is not an area we want to leave to chance. This is an area that needs to be watched. Recent history has taught us that. That means that we need to fund the CFTC at a level that allows this agency to do its critical work.

I understand that none of this easy, but I think we can agree that research is an area that we cannot afford to lose ground on for the sake of our economy and the safety of the food we consume.

In many cases, these food programs serve as the face of the United States in foreign countries and subsequently they help set long lasting views of our country. With that in mind, I look forward to an honest discussion on how we can improve efficiencies that reduce costs and increase the positive impacts on the ground.