-----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

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Mary Haffenberg, BridgeNews, Tel: 312-454-3477
Send comments to futures@Bridge.com
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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)