Linked below is an article entitled "Drums along the Potomac," focusing on the CFTC's budget constraints, organizational difficulties, and competing priorities. The article also discusses the views of former CFTC Commissioner Sommers as to the likelihood of substantial regulatory change in the CFTC's rules under Dodd-Frank. See: Click here to view the article. The above link is an excerpt from the most recent issue of Energy Metro Desk, which is published biweekly by Scudder Publishing Group, an energy trade news publishing company based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Those

The SEC announced that Donald M. Hoerl, director of its Denver Regional Office, is leaving in August after more than 30 years at the agency. See: SEC Press Release.

SIFMA issued a comment letter as to the level of effort that a broker-dealer should be required to undertake in order to obtain an execution of legally sufficient quality in the municipal bond markets. The comment letter was in reports to the July 31 SEC Report on the Municipal Securities Markets, asserting that retail customers in the municipal bond markets are disadvantaged in execution, pricing, and disclosure as they do not have access to the same information as dealers and institutional customers. In this regard, the SEC had recommended a rule change that would require municipal bond

The House Agriculture Committee Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management held a hearing on "The Future of the CFTC: End-User Perspectives." This is the second part of a two-part hearing on the future of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC"), specifically the reauthorization of the Commission. The first was yesterday and featured CFTC Commissioners O'Malia and Wetjen. See: Click here to see a summary of the reauthorization hearing from Delta Strategy Group. See also : Senate Agriculture Committee Hearing: "Reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading

The Division of Clearing and Risk of the CFTC announced that the second phase of required clearing for certain iTraxx credit default swap ("CDS") indices has begun for Category 2 Entities. Category 2 Entities include commodity pools, private funds, and persons predominately engaged in activities that are in the banking business or in activities that are financial in nature, except for third-party subaccounts. These entities are required to begin clearing iTraxx CDS indices that are subject to the clearing requirement under section 2(h) ("Clearing Requirements") of the CEA and Regulations 50.2