These are the basic questions for congressional oversight of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA)
In several respects, the CFMA was a fundamental rethinking of the government's role in derivatives markets. Reauthorization in the 110th Congress

Given the CFTC's satisfaction with its role under the CFMA, the growth of trading volumes, and continued innovation in the markets, few in the Congress saw the need for another thorough overhaul of the CEA. Several of these issues were addressed by the reauthorization legislation enacted by the 110 th Congress—title XIII of the Farm Bill ( P.L. 110-234 , H.R. 2419 ), enacted over the President's veto on May 22, 2008, and authorizing appropriations for the CFTC through FY2012. Security Futures

Security futures are futures contracts based on single stocks or narrow-based stock indexes. Trading volumes in security futures trading remain very low relative to the stock option market. (At present, margins are set at 20% of the underlying stocks' value, a figure that was determined by the SEC and CFTC to be comparable to margin requirements on stock options, as the CFMA requires, but which is much higher than most futures margins, which generally are in the range of 3%-8% of the value of the underlying commodity.) There has been some dispute over whether this prohibition applies to contracts based on foreign currency rates.
Authorization for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a "sunset" agency established in 1974, expired on September 30, 2005. In the past, Congress has used the reauthorization process to consider amendments to the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), which provides the basis for federal regulation of commodity futures trading. The last reauthorization resulted in the enactment of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA), the most significant amendments to the CEA since the CFTC was created in 1974. Both chambers considered reauthorization bills in the 109th Congress, but none was enacted.
In the 110th Congress, CFTC reauthorization provisions were added to the Farm Bill (H.R. 2419) and enacted over the President's veto on May 22, 2008, as P.L. 110-234. This report provides brief summaries of the issues addressed in that law, including (1) regulation of energy derivatives markets, where some blame excessive price volatility on a lack of effective regulation, (2) the legality of futures-like contracts based on foreign currency prices offered to retail investors, and (3) the market in security futures, or futures contracts based on single stocks, which were authorized by the CFMA, but trade in much lower volumes than their proponents expected.
This report will be updated as developments warrant.