Political Quotes

“It is no mystery why the crypto industry prefers to be regulated by the CFTC rather than the SEC. Let's start with the substantial differences in funding and staff for the CFTC compared to SEC. In 2023, the CFTC employed roughly 680 full-time employees with an annual budget of $365 million. Wow. The Securities and Exchange Commission, the SEC, employed over 4,500 employees and had a budget of over $2 billion. Even with the limited funding provided to the CFTC under this bill, which is capped at $40 million and set to expire after 4 years, the CFTC's funding would be only one-fifth of the SEC's budget. Mr. Chair, $40 billion is not sufficient to oversee more than 16,000 cryptocurrencies. Let's not forget that the same Republicans who are bringing this bill to the floor are the same ones who proposed cutting CFTC's budget last year. Moreover, the CFTC is designed to deal mostly with sophisticated institutional investors and traders rather than retail investors and consumers. Therefore, the CFTC does not have the same level of protections for retail investors and consumers. Mr. Chair, I would simply say that we should look at this example. The CFTC has no mandate like the SEC that requires entities to act in the best interests of the investors or to put their clients' interests first. This is just another reason why I am very concerned about the light-touch regulatory regime under the CFTC. Mr.…”