Source: U.S. HOUSE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, 1//25/12

Today, the House Agriculture Committee advanced by voice vote six bills that amend Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The legislation is the culmination of the committee's oversight efforts of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as it writes rules for Dodd-Frank. In the past year, the committee has held seven hearings on Title VII that have included testimony from market participants. They have shared consistent concerns that the CFTC is overreaching in its rulemaking and it will have a negative impact on businesses and on the economy.

"I appreciate the bipartisan leadership of my colleagues on the bills that advanced today. Our effort is to ensure that America's job creators - our farmers, ranchers, small businesses, community banks, energy companies and manufacturers - are not overburdened by financial regulations. Without these important changes, regulations could deter businesses from hedging against risk. That increases costs for consumers and reduces stability in the market place, which is contrary to the intent of the original Dodd-Frank legislation," said Chairman Frank Lucas.

All of the bills considered are listed below:
H.R. 1840 would require the CFTC to assess the costs and benefits of proposed actions.
H.R. 3336, the Small Business Credit Availability Act, ensures banks and farm credit institutions can continue providing interest rate swaps for customer loans without being classified as swap dealers.
H.R. 2682, the Business Risk Mitigation and Stabilization Act, ensures that end users can continue to use derivatives to manage business risks without being subject to costly margin requirements.
H.R. 2779 provides clarification that inter-affiliate transactions, when the parties to the transaction are under common control, are not to be regulated as swaps.
H.R. 3527, Protecting Main Street End-Users from Excessive Regulation, clarifies the definition of swap dealer to ensure energy and agriculture end-users are not misclassified and subject to costly new regulatory requirements.
H.R. 2586, the Swap Execution Facility (SEF) Clarification Act, prohibits the regulators from requiring a minimum number of participants to receive or respond to quote requests. It also prohibits regulators from limiting the means of interstate commerce that market participants can use to execute swaps and prohibits the agencies from requiring a SEF to delay quotes for any specific period of time.