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-----Original Message-----
From: Haffenberg, Mary [mailto:Mary.Haffenberg@bridge.com] Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2000 6:23 PM Subject: fyi -- [B] Single stock futures bill cautiously back in play -- By Mary Haffenberg, BridgeNews Chicago--Dec. 5--With Congress back in session this week, discussions on the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 are on again. But after months of negotiations that resulted in House legislation but no Senate bill, those interested in the bill's passage are taking a cautious approach at its chances of passage while Congress remains in session, even as key players held discussions Monday. * * * At a meeting with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm, R-Texas, House Agriculture Subcommittee Chairman Thomas Ewing, R-Ill., and representatives of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade on Monday in Washington, the group agreed on several points regarding legal certainty for banking products. Though at least one source said that the final draft that came out on Tuesday of these agreements was the farthest the parties have ever gotten in terms of conceptual agreements on these issues, others warned they'd been down a suspiciously similar path before. Conceptual agreements on these issues have been reached only to be foiled when pen was put to legislative paper and the details were revealed and the proposed legislation was deemed unpassable. It would be to no one's surprise if the same thing happened again. However, even the most ardent skeptics on Tuesday couldn't explain why Gramm has continued to discuss the bill if he had no intention of it ever passing. A spokeswoman for Gramm on Tuesday said that there is no time frame of when the legislative language would appear. No further formal meetings on the bill were scheduled on Tuesday afternoon In addition, as of midday Tuesday, Gramm had not contacted the U.S. Treasury Department, sources said, which must give its blessing to the bill if it is going to pass. In the past, Treasury and Gramm have not been able to reach agreement on several issues regarding the regulation of banking products. Retail protections and agency trades have been sticking points. The bill, which passed the Housed in October in a 377-4 vote, proposes to provide legal certainty for a variety of over-the-counter markets, legalize single stock futures, revamp and codify the regulatory plan that oversees the trading of derivatives products and reauthorize the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The sticking point has been Gramm, who said that the bill will go nowhere unless it contains provisions he thinks are necessary to exclude banking products from the act and to keep certain types of swaps out of the hands of certain regulators. After the House bill passed, Gramm put forth 34 revisions to it. When discussions last left off before the federal elections, Gramm and Treasury had resolved about 15 of those issues. "One man, Senator Gramm, is holding up this bill," Ewing said at a press conference last month. Ewing, who retires from Congress at the end of this year, has taken the lead in shepherding the bill through the House and is now actively trying to get it passed through the Senate. If agreement on legislative language is reached, the idea is that the Senate bill could be attached to a legislative package. But early this week there was talk of Congress passing a continuing resolution that would in effect fund the government until next year, meaning no bills would pass until Congress returned. End [Begin BridgeLinks] Mary Haffenberg, BridgeNews, Tel: 312-454-3477 Send comments to futures@Bridge.com [End BridgeLinks] Copyright 2000 Bridge Information Systems Inc. All rights reserved. Mary Haffenberg Bridge News 30 S. Wacker Drive, Suite 1810 Chicago, IL 60606-7404 312-454-3477 312-454-3465 (fax)
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