House Committee pushes Trump to fill CFTC seats as crypto regulation ramps up

The House Agriculture Committee is pressing President Donald Trump to nominate four commissioners to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), warning that the agency is not well-equipped to handle its expanding mandate with only one member in place.

In a joint letter on Friday, Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson and Ranking Member Angie Craig urged Trump to seat a full bipartisan panel of five commissioners alongside CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, who has been the agency’s sole commissioner since taking office in December following a wave of departures.

“The public, the markets, and the agency itself will be best served by a full five-member commission,” the letter said, adding that a complete panel would produce “better regulations, more durable rules, and more sensitivity to the divergent views of key derivatives market stakeholders.”

Source: House Agriculture Committee

The CFTC operates with roughly 543 full-time employees, compared to around 4,200 at the SEC.

CLARITY Act advances, increasing CFTC’s workload

The letter comes one day after the Senate Banking Committee voted 15-9 to advance the CLARITY Act, the crypto market structure bill that would hand the CFTC sweeping new authority over spot digital commodity trading. The House passed its own version of the bill last July with 294 votes.

“Congress and your Administration are also working together to add to the Commission’s work through the adoption of legislation that significantly expands the CFTC’s mandate to bring spot digital commodity transactions under federal oversight, which would require a significant rulemaking process,” the letter wrote.

Bloomberg reported in January that the White House was weighing a bipartisan slate of nominees, though Trump has not formally nominated anyone beyond Selig.

CFTC’s run-up with states over prediction markets

The committer also noted that rules set by a sole commissioner may be more exposed to legal challenge, an issue that already looms over the CFTC as it defends a string of prediction market lawsuits at the state level and works to formalize its position on non-custodial software developers.

As Cointelegraph reported, the CFTC has sued five states to assert its jurisdiction over prediction markets, launching action against regulators in Wisconsin, New York, Arizona, Connecticut and Illinois.