House GOP looks to slow work on derivatives

Lucas is joined on the bill by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) and Reps. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), who head subcommittees on the panels overseeing derivatives.

Financial derivatives were widely identified as playing a contributing role in the financial crisis, and as a result, lawmakers sought to impose new limits on the financial tools though the reform. The law aims to make dealing derivatives more transparent and subject major derivatives dealers to more stringent capital requirements.

As regulators, led by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), work to implement those new rules, controversy has emerged over how so-called end users of derivatives stand to be impacted by the law. End users are businesses not in the financial services industry that use derivatives to hedge themselves against regular business risk. For example, airlines use derivatives to hedge against fluctuations in fuel prices.

Dodd-Frank includes an exemption for end users from many of the new requirements on derivatives and those who deal in them, but Republicans have called into question how effective it will be, and how much of a burden the law will put on “Main Street” businesses.

Republicans have also been critical of the deadlines put in place by Dodd-Frank, arguing that the small window is forcing regulators to put in place rules without taking the time to adequately consider them and accept public input during the rulemaking process.

The new bill would also require regulators to hold additional public forums on the new requirements before finalizing any rules.