Lawmakers are still talking about the stall of the U.S. Farm Bill. Today the House Agriculture Committee marked up a bill to reauthorize the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This bill would provide exclusive jurisdiction to the CFTC in regulating energy markets. It remains to be seen how far the bill will go in Congress or in the Senate. Meanwhile, the Farm Bill is still held up, and members of the Ag committee made some noise in their meeting today about getting it passed. Committee Chairman Collin Peterson said the House could get the bill done by the end of January, but said he thinks “there are people in the Senate who do not want a Farm Bill.” Congressman Jerry Moran of Kansas said that “everyday Americans who farm are waiting for answers” about the bill.
On the energy front, today the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on regulation needed to address price manipulation in the energy markets. Committee members discussed the CFTC and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)’s recent haggling over exclusive jurisdiction over energy futures markets. They said that the “Enron loophole,” which allows for gaps in the regulation of energy, needs to be closed. At the hearing, Laura Campbell of Memphis Light, Gas and Water recommended “multiple cops” on the regulation beat and said she hoped the CFTC and FERC could work together in policing the energy markets. Some members of Congress said they wanted FERC to have the ultimate authority in regulation. It looks like the battle over energy regulation could heat up some more this winter. For more on the CFTC’s regulatory scrum and the stall of the Farm Bill, check out the January issue of Futures magazine.