FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: September 15, 2011
CONTACT: John Carey at 202-466-1854
john@ourfinancialsecurity.org
AFR Statement on Markup of FY12 Financial Services and General Gov’t Appropriations Bill
Washington, DC – Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of more than 250 national, state and local organizations working together for strong Wall Street reform, issued the following statement today:
Lisa Donner, Executive Director of Americans for Financial Reform:
“Wall Street’s recklessness and greed – enabled by the deregulation financial industry special interests lobbied for – were a fundamental cause of our economic crisis. They cost Americans millions of jobs, along with billions in taxpayer-funded bailouts, and trillions of dollars in pension funds, home values, and retirement savings.
In order to stabilize the economy, create jobs and prevent another similar crisis we need to establish and enforce fair rules of the road for financial markets. That is why it is so important that the entities tasked with these responsibilities have the resources and authority they need to do their jobs. Anything less protects the status quo that served special interest greed and caused the crisis.
In this context, we applaud the fact that the FY 2012 appropriations bill passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee allocates the Securities and Exchange Commission the full $1.4 billion requested in the President’s 2012 budget. We also appreciate the funding increase to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over its 2011 budget. However, we remain deeply concerned that the $240 million allocated to the CFTC falls more than 20 percent short of the President’s request of $308 million for the agency. This level of funding will make it extraordinarily difficult for the agency to carry out its responsibilities to the public.
The CFTC role in overseeing the nation’s commodity markets is vital to the economic well-being of American families. By policing speculation in markets for crude oil and other vital commodities, the CFTC acts to protect consumers from inflation in gasoline and food prices. The Dodd-Frank Act also greatly expanded the responsibilities of the CFTC in overseeing derivatives. The Act charges the CFTC with oversight of approximately $280 trillion in previously unregulated domestic swaps markets, representing a more than seven-fold increase in the notional size of the market the CFTC must supervise. This increase of roughly $140 million over 2010 funding levels is very small when compared to the scope of the CFTC’s new responsibilities. It is also very small when compared to the resources of the multi-trillion dollar financial institutions that are active in CFTC-supervised markets.”
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