WASHINGTON, DC – With gasoline prices straining family budgets in Rhode Island and throughout the country, U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) are calling on their Republican colleagues not to slash the budget of the agency in charge of monitoring oil speculators. Reed, Whitehouse, and 46 other senators sent a letter to Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner urging them to abandon their reckless proposal to cut the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) ability to prevent speculators from artificially driving up gas prices.
“It is imperative that the CFTC have the resources to investigate and crack down on excessive market speculation and manipulation. Instead of clamping down on market manipulators, the Republican budget would make it more difficult for the CFTC to protect consumers and prevent distortions that lead to inflated energy prices,” said Reed.
“With gas prices on the rise and Rhode Island families struggling to make ends meet, I’m fighting to ensure that Wall Street speculators aren’t unfairly gouging gas prices,” said Whitehouse. “We need to make sure that Wall Street isn’t raising prices and hurting middle class families.”
In the letter, the senators wrote: “As we work toward a long-term budget compromise to keep the government running through this year, we urge you to abandon the reckless energy proposals in the House-passed Continuing Resolution (H.R 1) that will condemn our country to continued reliance on foreign oil and allow market manipulation that could lead to gas prices rising unchecked.”
The full text of the letter is below:
Dear Minority Leader McConnell:
As we work toward a long-term budget compromise to keep the government running through this year, we urge you to abandon the reckless energy proposals in the House-passed Continuing Resolution (H.R 1) that will condemn our country to continued reliance on foreign oil and allow market manipulation that could lead to gas prices rising unchecked.
As you know, H.R. 1 would reduce funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) by one-third. The CFTC serves as an important “cop on the beat,” working to protect American consumers by cracking down on manipulation and other market abuses that can drive up oil prices. Yet your spending plan would shrink the CFTC budget back to 2008 levels, when Americans were blindsided by both record high gas prices and a financial crisis that cost us millions of jobs. According to CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler, these cuts would cause “significant curtailment of staff and resources.” At a time where gas prices are rising and squeezing American families, we have a responsibility to provide our watchdogs the resources they need to fulfill their important oversight and regulatory responsibilities.
We find it equally troubling that your preferred budget would cut billions of dollars in investments in critical programs focused on developing new alternative fuels and clean energy technologies, undermining our competitiveness and increasing our trade deficit with oil producing nations. We urge you to reverse these policies that will only set our nation backward, and put America’s independence from foreign oil even further out of reach.
We stand ready to work with you to come to a responsible budget compromise that will not do anything to make our gas price problem worse, or undermine the progress we are making in developing the clean energy technologies we need so we can better compete with countries like China. Together, we can craft a sensible fiscal policy that invests in what we need to grow and cuts what doesn’t, without undermining our mission to transition to a safe, clean and affordable energy future.
In addition to Reed and Whitehouse, signers included:
Senator Harry Reid
Senator Dick Durbin
Senator Chuck Schumer
Senator Patty Murray
Senator Debbie Stabenow
Senator Kent Conrad
Senator Maria Cantwell
Senator Bill Nelson
Senator Max Baucus
Senator Barbara Mikulski
Senator Jeanne Shaheen
Senator Jeff Merkley
Senator Mark Begich
Senator Dianne Feinstein
Senator Mark Pryor
Senator Richard Blumenthal
Senator Mark Udall
Senator Kay Hagan
Senator Ben Cardin
Senator Al Franken
Senator Barbara Boxer
Senator Frank Lautenberg
Senator Carl Levin
Senator Mark Warner
Senator Tom Carper
Senator Daniel Akaka
Senator Tom Harkin
Senator Bob Menendez
Senator Ron Wyden
Senator Claire McCaskill
Senator Chris Coons
Senator Michael Bennet
Senator Sherrod Brown
Senator Jon Tester
Senator Amy Klobuchar
Senator Bob Casey
Senator John Kerry
Senator Jay Rockefeller
Senator Jeff Bingaman
Senator Daniel Inouye
Senator Joe Lieberman
Senator Bernie Sanders
Senator Patrick Leahy
Senator Herb Kohl
Senator Tim Johnson
Senator Tom Udall
Cc: Speaker John Boehner
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