I don’t know if it would be good policy to, as the Treasury Department recommends, merge the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). But I find it depressing that such a move is impossible because of this:
[Chairman Barney] Frank has made significantly more headway with his Agriculture Committee chairman, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), than [Sen. Chris] Dodd has.
Frank and the folksy former accountant and farm state champion have been working out details since at least early June, when the pair told [Treasury Secretary Tim] Geithner over dinner that he needed to back off a proposal to merge the Securities and Exchange Commission with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Peterson’s panel oversees the CFTC and the futures contracts it regulates. The administration plan would have stripped the Agriculture Committee of its influence over the global economy — and its members’ ability to collect campaign contributions from the financial industry.
Peterson made clear first to Frank, then to Treasury, that the plan would spark a massive turf battle that would bog down the overall bill.
Those campaign contributions from the financial industry to the House Agriculture committee also explain why most of the members of the committee will vote against progressive policies on health and climate. Anyone want to count how many members of the committee are Blue Dogs?
