The agency is organized around four divisions:
Clearing and Risk, which oversees derivatives clearing organizations and other major market participants; Enforcement, which investigates and prosecutes alleged violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and of CFTC regulations; Market Oversight, which conducts trade surveillance and oversees trading facilities such as futures exchanges; and Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight, which oversees registration and compliance by self-regulatory organizations (SROs), such as the futures exchanges (e.g., the Chicago Mercantile Exchange), the National Futures Association, and registration of swap dealers and major swap participants. Current Issues

The CFTC currently faces a range of issues—many of them related to the many rulemakings it was charged with under the Dodd-Frank Act regarding bringing the swaps market under regulation. Other issues relate to the CFTC's role in overseeing the derivatives markets. It is a selective, not exhaustive, list. This mandate left much discretion to the CFTC as to how to interpret it. In addition, legislation was passed by the House ( H.R. Also, H.R. 1256 requires the CFTC and SEC to allow non-U.S. persons in compliance with the laws of any countries with one of the nine largest swaps markets to be exempt from U.S. regulatory requirements on swaps, unless the two agencies issue a joint rule finding that the regulatory requirements of any of these nine countries or administrative regions "are not broadly equivalent to U.S. swaps requirements." In House floor debate, opponents of the bill asserted that it would weaken the Dodd-Frank requirements on swaps by allowing foreign banks and overseas affiliates of large U.S. conglomerates to escape these swaps requirements, and that it would slow down the pace of agency rulemakings and implementation of the Dodd-Frank derivatives reforms. 1256 was passed by the House on June 12, 2013, with a roll call vote of 301 to 124. 634 would prevent regulators from imposing margin requirements on swaps for both counterparties in which one counterparty is an "end user." H.R. On June 12, 2013, H.R. 634 was passed by the House with a roll call vote of 411 to 12. 677 ), is the question of the extent to which swaps between affiliates within an umbrella organization, such as a financial or corporate conglomerate, should be subject to the clearing and other requirements of Dodd-Frank. This has been a challenge faced by regulators charged with implementing the Volcker rule, of which the CFTC is one. The CFTC issued its proposed rule implementing Section 619 of Dodd-Frank on February 14, 2012. Legislation in the 112 th Congress ( H.R. Such steep jumps, along with unexplained price volatility in a range of commodities, have fostered apprehension that financial speculation in derivatives might be creating such volatility in commodity prices. The role of speculators in oil and commodities markets has attracted congressional interest. The CFTC approved rules setting position limits for certain commodities in November of 2011. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated and remanded the CFTC's position limit rules in a decision issued in September of 2012. Reforms to LIBOR as a benchmark interest rate are also underway in the UK. In the case of the CFTC and the Commodity Exchange Act, one provision, which authorizes appropriations, expires on September 30, 2013: 
Authorization of appropriations . In the case of the CFTC, reauthorization is under the control of the House and Senate agriculture committees. In 2013, the House and Senate agriculture committees have already begun holding CFTC reauthorization hearings. Appendix. Futures contracts are traded on exchanges regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC); stock options on exchanges under the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); and swaps (and some options) have been traded over the counter (OTC), and until passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, had not been regulated by anyone. To meet this concern, the Dodd-Frank Act's Title VII on derivatives reform included a broad exemption from this clearing requirement for derivatives when one party to the trade is a non-financial firm.
The 113th Congress is interested in an array of issues faced by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The congressional committees with oversight of the agency, the House and Senate Agriculture Committees, have begun to hold hearings related to various policy issues faced by the agency, as part of the CFTC reauthorization process. This process occurs roughly every five years and is currently underway, as the last authorization of appropriations for the agency expires September 30, 2013.
The CFTC witnessed a major expansion of its role in overseeing derivatives markets following passage of the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. This act brought previously unregulated over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, called swaps, under the oversight of the CFTC. The new role of the CFTC as a regulator of the swaps markets comes in addition to its preexisting role overseeing the futures and options markets, which include commodities and financial market instruments such as interest rate futures. Under the Dodd-Frank Act, much discretion on a range of key issues related to the new regulation of swaps was left to the CFTC (and to the Securities and Exchange Commission for swaps based on securities).
As the agency seeks to use its rulemaking powers to implement Dodd-Frank, several issues are proving challenging or contentious. These include the CFTC's and other financial regulators' implementation of the Volcker rule under Section 619 of Dodd-Frank, which prohibits proprietary trading and hedge fund activities by banks. Other Dodd-Frank implementation issues have prompted legislation in the 113th Congress. H.R. 677 addresses the scope of an exemption from clearing requirements for swaps between affiliates within an umbrella organization. A related issue is determining the scope of any exemption from the Dodd-Frank Act requirements on swaps for overseas branches or affiliates of U.S. organizations and for foreign organizations trading with U.S. persons—an issue that H.R. 1256 seeks to address. H.R. 1256 passed the House on June 12, 2013, in a roll call vote of 301-124. Another bill, H.R. 634, which also passed the House on June 12 in a roll call vote of 411-12, would prevent regulators from imposing margin requirements on swaps for both counterparties in which one counterparty is a non-financial firm, known as an "end user" of derivatives. H.R. 1003 would mandate additional cost-benefit analyses by the CFTC when it conducts future rulemakings.
In addition, changing technologies have created novel challenges for the agency's oversight in such matters as monitoring high frequency trading in the derivatives markets. Furthermore, certain failures, such as the collapse of the futures trading firms MF Global and of Peregrine Financial, and enforcement issues, such as the manipulation of LIBOR, have flagged policy issues for the CFTC on the enforcement and policy fronts. Commodity price volatility, such as in the 2008 and 2011 runups in oil prices, has also sparked congressional interest in the CFTC's proposed position limits rule, which some hope would constrain volatility in these markets. The CFTC's position limits rule was vacated and remanded by a federal court in 2012—a decision that the CFTC has appealed.
This report provides summaries and abbreviated analyses of selected issues faced by the CFTC that may be relevant to the 113th Congress. It is not an exhaustive list of issues facing the agency. The appendix offers detailed background information on derivatives markets and related policy issues addressed in the Dodd-Frank Act. This report will be updated as events warrant.