A bill to provide end user exemptions from certain provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Amends the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) to exempt, from the rules of prudential regulators for swap dealers and major swap participants with respect to initial and variation margin requirements for swaps not cleared by a registered derivatives clearing organization, those swaps in which one of the counterparties: (1) is eligible for an exception from clearing requirements for certain significant price discovery agreements, contracts, or transactions in a commodity exempt from regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC); or (2) satisfies specified criteria governing treatment of affiliates in connection with clearing requirements.

Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, regarding registration and regulation of security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants, to exempt from initial and variation margin requirements for swaps not cleared by a registered derivatives clearing organization a security-based swap in which one of the counterparties: (1) qualifies for a specified exception from clearing requirements, or (2) satisfies certain criteria governing the treatment of affiliates.

Requires that the amendments to CEA made by this Act be implemented: (1) without regard to federal information policy requirements or the notice and comment requirements of federal administrative procedure; and (2) through promulgation of an interim final rule, pursuant to which public comment will be sought before a final rule is issued.

Limits the disregard of such federal information policy and notice and comment requirements solely to changes to rules and regulations, or proposed rule and regulations, that are limited to, and directly a consequence of, the amendments to CEA made by this Act.

[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3480 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3480

To provide end user exemptions from certain provisions of the Commodity 
         Exchange Act and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             August 1, 2012

Mr. Johanns (for himself, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Tester, Mr. Kohl, Mr. Toomey, 
and Mrs. Hagan) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
    referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To provide end user exemptions from certain provisions of the Commodity 
         Exchange Act and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. MARGIN REQUIREMENTS.

    (a) Requirements.--
            (1) Commodity exchange act amendment.--Section 4s(e) of the 
        Commodity Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. 6s(e)), as added by section 
        731 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer 
        Protection Act, is amended by adding at the end the following 
        new paragraph:
            ``(4) Applicability with respect to counterparties.--The 
        requirements of paragraphs (2)(A)(ii) and (2)(B)(ii) shall not 
        apply to a swap in which a counterparty qualifies for an 
        exception under section 2(h)(7)(A) or satisfies the criteria in 
        section 2(h)(7)(D).''.
            (2) Securities exchange act amendment.--Section 15F(e) of 
        the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78o-10(e)), as 
        added by section 764(a) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform 
        and Consumer Protection Act, is amended by adding at the end 
        the following new paragraph:
            ``(4) Applicability with respect to counterparties.--The 
        requirements of paragraphs (2)(A)(ii) and (2)(B)(ii) shall not 
        apply to a security-based swap in which a counterparty 
        qualifies for an exception under section 3C(g)(1) or satisfies 
        the criteria in section 3C(g)(4).''.
    (b) Implementation.--The amendments made by this section to the 
Commodity Exchange Act shall be implemented--
            (1) without regard to--
                    (A) chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code; and
                    (B) the notice and comment provisions of section 
                553 of title 5, United States Code;
            (2) through the promulgation of an interim final rule, 
        pursuant to which public comment will be sought before a final 
        rule is issued; and
            (3) such that paragraph (1) shall apply solely to changes 
        to rules and regulations, or proposed rules and regulations, 
        that are limited to and directly a consequence of such 
        amendments.
                                 <all>