There continues to be significant public discord amongst the Commissioners at the CFTC.
2014 Budget
According to Commissioner Scott O’Malia “Given the vast deficit spending challenges this country is facing, I do not believe it is fiscally prudent for the Commission to make broad unsubstantiated appeals for massive budget increases without specifically identifying its mission needs and priorities.”
Commissioner Jill Sommers stated “On February 27, 2013 Chairman Gensler testified before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and stated that, due to a lack of resources, the Commission is “shelving” enforcement cases. I had not previously been notified of such a decision, and was therefore very surprised and deeply troubled by his testimony. Protecting the public and market participants by maintaining a robust enforcement program is one of our five stated primary goals as an agency. (See Budget, pg. 6). A strong enforcement program is also a key pillar in realizing several of our other stated primary goals. If we are indeed “shelving” enforcement cases then we have gravely mismanaged our resources. Irrespective of what resources are allocated to us through the appropriation process, we clearly need to shift more resources to Enforcement. “Shelving” enforcement cases should never be an option.”
2012 Annual Performance Report
Commissioners Scott O’Malia and Jill Sommers issued a joint statement that said “To date, the Commission has met just 46 percent of its goals. It should be noted that six goals weren’t even considered as part of this calculation, which if included would take the unmet goals to over 59 percent. We find these results troubling. But even more troubling is that this report fails to outline any corrective measures that the Commission should take to ensure that these specific unmet performance measures are going to be achieved in the future.”
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