On Thursday, May 31 NAEGA, along with fifteen other agriculture and agribusiness organizations, signed a letter addressed to U.S. Senators James Lankford and Christopher Coons, Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Subcommittee on Financial Services. The letter requests that the Administration’s full budget request of $281.5 million for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) be included in the FY19 Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill.

In recent years, the CFTC’s responsibilities have expanded significantly, and more funding is required in order to continue its role in helping to safeguard U.S. futures and swaps markets. Without sufficient staffing, the CFTC will be unable to pursue completion of a number of important rules and initiatives that impact price discovery and risk management for U.S. agriculture, including:

• Position limit rule;
• Reg AT/High-frequency trading oversight;
• Scrutiny of block trading transactions;
• Commitments to traders reports;

A copy of the letter can be found here.