House Passes Four Bills on Which the Senate Is Not Expected to Act (Summary by Delta Strategy Group)

The House voted on four Dodd-Frank related bills, all previously considered and favorably reported by the House Agriculture and Financial Services Committees. Under House floor procedures, the first three bills were considered under a suspension of the rules, a floor proceeding generally reserved for non-controversial matters during which no significant debate or amendments are allowed. The last bill, which is related to the cross-border application of Dodd-Frank sponsored by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), was considered under a House-passed closed rule resolution, which allows debate on the floor, but effectively eliminates the opportunity to consider amendments other than those reported by a Committee that previously considered and reported the bill. There was an hour of partisan debate concerning this bill. House Democrats characterized this bill as undermining the Dodd-Frank Act and creating more opportunities for bailouts, while House Republicans emphasized that this bill is needed to prevent regulatory arbitrage. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) offered a motion to recommit the cross-border bill back to the Financial Services Committee with the intention of offering an amendment concerning the Iran Sanctions Act and cyber-security. This motion failed on a recorded vote of 194-230. Ultimately, as expected, all bills passed the House and will move to the Senate next where there is no current plan to act upon them.

Below is a brief summary of the bills, including sponsors, vote tallies, and links to the bills.

H.R. 634, the Business Risk Mitigation and Price Stabilization Act of 2013 - Exempts commercial end-users from the margin and capital requirements of Title VII of the Dodd-Frank. [Sponsors: Reps. Michael Grimm (R-NY), Gary Peters (D-MI), Austin Scott (R-GA), and Mike McIntyre (D-NC)] - Passed by Recorded Vote: 411-12

H.R. 742, the Swap Data Repository and Clearinghouse Indemnification Correction Act of 2013 - To amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Commodity Exchange Act to repeal the indemnification requirement for regulatory authorities to obtain access to swap data required to be provided by swaps entities under such Acts. [Sponsors: Reps. Rick Crawford (R-AR), Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), Bill Huizenga (R-MI), and Gwen Moore (D-WI)] - Passed by Recorded Vote: 420-2

H.R. 1038, the Public Power Risk Management Act of 2013 - To provide equal treatment for utility special entities using utility operations-related swaps. [Sponsors: Reps. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), Jeff Denham (R-CA), John Garamendi (D-CA), Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO), and Jim Costa (D-CA)] - Passed by Recorded Vote: 423-0

H.R. 1256, the Swap Jurisdiction Certainty Act - To direct the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to jointly adopt rules setting forth the application to cross-border swaps transactions of certain provisions relating to swaps that were enacted as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. [Sponsors: Reps. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Mike Conaway (R-TX), David Scott (D-CA), and John Carney (D-DE)] - Passed by Recorded Vote: 301-124

The above summary was prepared by Delta Strategy Group. Questions about the summary may be directed to:Charlie Thornton Delta Strategy Group600 Pennsylvania Avenue SE Suite 300Washington, DC 20003T 202.547.3035 M [email protected]