Press Release

Washington, DC – Today, General Farm Commodities and Risk Management Subcommittee Chairman Mike Conaway issued the following statement regarding the passage of several pieces of legislation aimed at clarifying or amending certain parts of the derivatives section (Title VII) of the Dodd-Frank Act.

“The fundamental responsibility of a regulator is to accurately gauge the costs and benefits of each of the regulations it proposes. Congress delegates this authority to federal agencies because it recognizes the body lacks the expertise to assess the impacts of detailed rules.

“For the past year the CFTC has been pushing through the Dodd-Frank Act, the most sweeping change to our financial markets in a generation, and has rarely even attempted to accurately estimate the cost of compliance. 

“My bill would require the CFTC to perform a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis with each rulemaking. This small mandate on the economists and lawyers at the CFTC will ensure that the burdens placed on business large and small are justified in the real world, not just in the pages of the Federal Register.”

“Our regulators must walk a fine line between the safety offered by transparency and regulation, and the dynamism found in liquidity and innovative products.  The bills we passed today will help clarify how Congress intended them to walk that line.”

H.R. 1840 would require the CFTC to assess the costs and benefits of proposed actions and advanced out of the committee by voice vote on January 25, 2012.

###