The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) put out a statement this morning praising Congress for the Passage of the Farm Bill, which included the CFTC Reauthorization Act of 2008.
Yesterday we indicated that the May 9 statement criticizing Congress had to do with Sen. Diane Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) announcement on May 2, that her measures to close the so called “Enron loophole” would be included in the final Farm Bill conference report, it did not. Instead it was referring to the Oil Trading Transparency Act and Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008, according to an ICE spokesperson, neither of which were included in the Farm Bill. Provisions in those two bills, among other things, would require the CFTC to apply U.S. futures regulation to non U.S. exchanges and set higher margin levels for crude oil futures contracts.
The CFTC Reauthorization Act of 2008 maintains the Exempt Commercial Market (ECM) designation but gives the CFTC the authority to require certain contracts traded on ECMs that have a "significant price discovery" role to face similar requirements as traditional futures contracts. That is what ICE Chairman and CEO Jeff Sprecher had argued for in Congressional hearings.
As for the CFTC reauthorization, a CFTC spokesperson says, “We are awfully close.” President Bush has said he would veto the Farm Bill (not related to the CFTC reauthorization) but it passed both Houses with enough votes to override a veto. She also noted that reauthorization would extend out for five years until 2013. The agency came up for reauthorization in 2005 and has been operating under temporary spending measures since then.