Ranking Member Bishop Statement at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Request Hearing

Congressman Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (D-GA), Chair of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's hearing on the fiscal year 2024 budget request for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission:

**As prepared for delivery**

Thank you Chairman Harris, and thank you Chairman Behnam for appearing before us today to testify on the FY24 budget for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The CFTC is trusted to oversee the U.S. derivatives markets that American agricultural producers rely on to manage their financial risk amid increasingly volatile economic times. From the Russian invasion of Ukraine to severe global weather conditions, American farmers face an array of market and supply chain challenges when it comes to selling their products at home and abroad. It is as important now as it was after the 2008 financial crisis to ensure that financial markets in the United States operate with transparency and integrity, and the CFTC is at the front line of that effort.

The CFTC is a steward of both American markets and American taxpayers' dollars. With one of the smaller budgets among independent agencies, the CFTC is responsible for regulating a massive financial market. In June 2022, the Bank for International Settlements estimated that global derivatives markets had a $632 trillion notional value—that is trillion with a “T”—while the CFTC received a total of $365 million in FY23 appropriations. The CFTC is also the only U.S. financial regulator that does not impose user fees on market participants, which further demonstrates the huge return that the American people get on their investment in the agency.

The CFTC is also responsible for regulating cryptocurrency derivatives and enforcing anti-fraud and manipulation rules in digital asset cash markets. While Congress works to build out the framework for the brave new world of digital assets in the United States, the CFTC has successfully worked to create guardrails in the derivatives space they already oversee. With all the recent turmoil in both the banking sector and digital asset markets, I am pleased to note that, when the crypto firm FTX collapsed, their CFTC-registered and regulated derivatives trading platform was one of the few remaining survivors of the fallout.

I look forward to hearing how the CFTC delivers for American farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers, about the work the agency is doing to ensure resilient markets, and about the progress the Commission is making to promote diversity at one of our country's most valuable institutions.

Chairman Behnam, thank you again for appearing today, and I yield back.