Legislative Update

I'm sure there's an explanation - it might be strategic, or legal or maybe even psychological. In any case, it happended again last week - members of Congress introduced new bills that look exactly like existing bills.

One is a golden oldie. I think there are three bills out there already that propose repealing the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, but S 961, proposed on May 4th and titled the "Authorizing the Regulation of Swaps Act," is the most thorough. It has a section that looks like the Popular Name Table for the CFMA (USCA-POP) and repeals every section. Its later provisions underline that the law is meant to allow the SEC, the CFTC and a bunch of other agencies to regulate swaps. It then defines "swap agreement" and "purchase and sale" for swap purposes.

HR 2253 follows the more recent trend of emplanneling investigative committees. The "Financial Markets Commission Act" creates a bipartisan committee of seven with a three million dollar budget. The Commission has a year to prepare a report examining "all the causes ... of the current financial and economic crisis ... and the deterioration of the credit and housing markets." The panel is instructed to pay special attention to the role of the Fed, the SEC, the CFTC, FNMA and credit rating agencies.

Meanwhile, S 896 the "Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009," which passed the Senate on May 6th, was the subject of frantic 11th-hour amending:

S Amdt. 1020 and 1021 - Allows Comptroller General to audit the Federal Reserve
S Amdt. 1038 - Provides greater oversight of PPIP
S Amdt. 1039 - Creates a TARP warrant liquidation process

Other amendments which didn't make the cut:

S Amdt. 1026 - Forbidding use of TARP money to buy common stock
S Amdt. 1030 - TARP repayments used for deficit reduction (hello John Thune!)