Mike Conaway: “I thank my colleague from Pennsylvania for allowing me to speak on his bill. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of…”

“I thank my colleague from Pennsylvania for allowing me to speak on his bill. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 37, the Promoting Job Creation and Reducing Small Business Burdens Act. I am especially proud of and would like to highlight the past work of the Agriculture Committee on the three titles of this bill under its jurisdiction: the Business Risk Mitigation and Price Stabilization Act; a provision on the treatment of affiliate transactions; and a provision regarding swap data repository and clearinghouse indemnification correction. As I noted in the debate earlier today on TRIA, the Business Risk Mitigation and Price Stabilization Act is legislation to clarify Congress' intent to exempt non-financial businesses from a misguided regulatory requirement to post margin requirements on their hedging activities. Clearing and margining, while appropriate for some transactions, are not appropriate for end users hedging real-world commercial risks. Their hedging activities are not large enough to present a systemic risk, and a margin requirement represents a significant and needless expense with little value to the overall financial system. Title I puts in statute protections for American businesses. To grow our economy, businesses should use their scarce capital to buy new equipment, to hire more workers, to build new facilities, and to invest in the future. They cannot do that if they are required to hold money in margin accounts to fulfill a misguided regulation.…”