Customer Protection and End User Relief Act
Latest action. Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Customer Protection and End User Relief Act - Title I: Customer Protections - Futures Customer Protection Act - (Sec. 102) Amends the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) to direct registered futures associations to require their futures commission merchant members to: (1) maintain written policies and procedures governing maintenance of members’ specified residual interests in customer segregated funds accounts, including cleared swaps customer collateral accounts; and (2) establish rules governing the withdrawal, transfer, or disbursement of a member's residual interest in customer segregated funds, in foreign futures and foreign options customer secured amount funds, and from a cleared swaps customer collateral.
(Sec. 106) Authorizes the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to require that property of the bankruptcy estate, including trading or operating accounts and commodities held in inventory, of a commodity broker who is a Chapter 7 debtor in bankruptcy be included in customer property, subject to any otherwise unavoidable security interest, or otherwise unavoidable contractual offset or netting rights of creditors in respect of such property, but only to the extent that such property is insufficient to satisfy the net equity claims of the broker's public customers.
(Sec. 107) Directs the CFTC to examine the effect of high-frequency trading upon markets under its jurisdiction, particularly whether such trading increases market volatility, including short term market swings.
Title II: Commodity Futures Trading Commission Reforms - Commodity Futures Trading Commission Reform Act - (Sec. 203) Extends authority for CFTC operations. Amends the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) to revise the requirement that the CFTC, before promulgating a regulation or issuing an order, consider the costs and benefits of the action. Requires the CFTC, through the Office of the Chief Economist (established by this Act), to: (1) assess and publish the costs and benefits, both qualitative and quantitative, of the proposed regulation; and (2) require the proposed regulation or order to state its statutory justification.
Requires a court to affirm a CFTC assessment of costs and benefits, unless it finds the assessment to be an abuse of discretion.
The summary continues for 43 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Passed House amended" stage on June 24, 2014. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on June 25, 2014: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 113th Congress (2013-14), 296 of the 9,091 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.3 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
FRANK LUCAS (R-OK) introduced it on April 7, 2014, and 3 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 2 Democrats, 1 Republican.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on April 7, 2014, 4539 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 4460 days ago, on June 25, 2014.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 113th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2015 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers