Transcripts from the most recent committee meeting on July 15, 2008 indicate some preference for the status quo. Among other things, the members were discussing how tighter U.S. rules could affect the global market.
“It’s not helpful to have legislation that encumbers the good decision making of the CFTC,” said Craig Donohue, chief executive of the CME Group. Arthur Hahn, a lawyer representing Euronext Liffe, an international derivatives exchange, said “rulemaking tends to be hard and fast.”
Sommers was named to the CFTC in 2007 by George W. Bush and reappointed this summer by President Obama. She has chaired the global advisory committee since February 2008.
Shortly after Sommers’ reappointment, a coalition of multiple interests not represented on her committee — from consumer organizations to ranchers, power companies, and airlines — wrote her a letter complaining that the group was unbalanced. “Our organizations have an interest in seeing its membership diversified to include commodity end-users and consumers,” wrote Collura on behalf of the coalition.
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), agreed that the committee should expand its membership. During Sommers’ most recent confirmation last month, Cantwell extracted a promise from Sommers to include end users before scheduling the advisory panel’s next meeting.
But on Nov. 6, when the CFTC announced the next scheduled meeting for December, there were no additional members.
Pickel, of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, downplays the committee’s influence. The CFTC “can decide to listen to us or not,” he said. “It’s really just a forum that allows the commission to cast a net to take in views across the marketplace.”
Still, he said, “I wouldn’t be surprised” if the committee added new members.
Serving Out Their Terms
Despite White House rhetoric about minimizing the direct influence of registered lobbyists, efforts at a crackdown have been soft. On Sept. 23, Obama appeared to call for an end to the membership of lobbyists on advisory committees — in the form of an announcement on a White House blog by Norm Eisen, the president’s special ethics counsel. Lobbyists and executives from Boeing, International Paper Co., IBM and 13 other companies and trade organizations quickly complained — and threatened to circumvent the requirement by having their lobbyists simply stop registering.
