FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: | CONTACT: CHRISTI HARLAN |
Thursday, June 8, 2000 | 202-224-0894 |
Sen. Phil Gramm, chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, today joined with Sen. Dick Lugar, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, to introduce S. 2697, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.
The legislation reauthorizes the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and addresses four key goals set out by Gramm and Lugar: providing legal certainty for swaps; repealing the Shad-Johnson accord that prohibits futures contracts on stocks of a single company; harmonizing margin requirements among futures, stock and options exchanges; and reducing regulatory burden.
"Technology is making it possible for financial markets to do business any where in the world," Gramm said. "Congress must do its part to maintain the United States' predominance in the financial markets by ensuring that regulation keeps pace with technology and does not stifle it.
"This bill lays the groundwork for bringing U.S. regulation in line with the needs of the commodity and securities markets, and I look forward to working with Chairman Lugar to perfect the bill through the legislative process.
"I am particularly pleased that this legislation will give swaps the legal certainty that has been overdue," Gramm said. "Swap agreements are an important underpinning of the success of U.S. industry and agriculture, and we must make their legal status clear."
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The text of Senator Gramm's statement on the introduction of S.2697, "The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000"
is available on the Banking Committee's website, at http://banking.senate.gov/corresp/0608cfma.htm.
The text of the legislation, and a section-by-section summary, is available under "Briefs"
on the Agriculture Committee's website, http://agriculture.senate.gov.