WASHINGTON – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) spoke with Mike Selig, President Trump’s nominee to chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), at his confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. During their conversation, Senator Tuberville spoke with Mr. Selig about removing barriers to make the markets more efficient for participants.
Excerpts from Senator Tuberville’s conversation with Mr. Selig can be found below, and the full exchange can be viewed on YouTube or Rumble.
TUBERVILLE: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Selig—congratulations on your nomination. A common complaint that I hear from participants in the markets is that CFTC has been failing to do the basic blocking and tackling of its core responsibilities. Obtaining a license from the CFTC has become significantly more costly and time consuming. How do you plan to restore the CFTC’s reputation along these lines?”
SELIG: “Thank you, Senator, and I really enjoyed our time in your office yesterday talking through these and other issues. You raise a very important issue at the CFTC. Spending many years in private practice, working with clients that want their applications processed, that want to get answers on their very important questions—it’s vitally important that the CFTC gives the attention that these market participants deserve to the market participants. As I mentioned in my opening statement, the staff regulation by enforcement and the rule by unwritten law through interpretive guidance that’s not provided in any sort of written form what we call law and many respects and through no action letters really is unacceptable. And so, we need the staff to work together with our applicants, with our registrants to get their businesses going. If confirmed, my job is to get the agency running like a business to really make sure that applications come in. They’re processed efficiently and quickly so people can go on with their business. And that’s gonna be a key priority of mine. I also intend to evaluate the processes in place currently within the commission to ensure that they’re efficient. If there are steps that are unnecessary, we’ll take them out. If there’s things we need to be doing, we’ll add them into the process, but I wanna make sure that people aren’t waiting six months for a phone call from the staff.”
TUBERVILLE: “Thank you. Will you commit to working to resolve outstanding issues restricting cross border trade flows in over-the-counter markets?”
SELIG: “Senator, thank you. That’s another important issue before the commission. I think it’s critical that we have substituted compliance in place where it makes sense. We need to deregulate with our allies, make sure that they’re also allowing for our market participants to enter their markets. We should do the same. So, I do think it’s vitally important to remove these blockages to over-the-counter derivatives markets.”
TUBERVILLE: “Yeah. How would you balance enforcement actions with providing clear forward-looking guidances to innovators seeking to comply?”
SELIG: “Senator, I think as I mentioned earlier, we’ve just massively overregulated the real-world economy. We’ve pushed a lot of our innovators offshore with regulation by enforcement, smothered them in red tape, really not allowed them to go do the things they do best—be creative and build great businesses. And so, I would remove a lot of these barriers that really are in their way to—from success. I think the most important thing, as I mentioned, is to remove a lot of these unwritten rules of the road, really create clear and simple guidelines that you don’t need a high-priced law firm to figure out. I would create make sure that our forms are really efficient and able to be, you know, really easily understood and work with, of course, stakeholders to figure out the best path forward, and I’d love to work with this committee on these issues as well.”
TUBERVILLE: “I’d like to hear your thoughts on something. I hear a lot from our Bitcoin miners. Bitcoin—and as crypto is—a commodity. If we sell corn, if we sell cotton, we pay taxes on it when we sell that commodity. But when a Bitcoin is mined from a miner, IRS is standing next door ready to get their money from this Bitcoin. What’s your thoughts on that?”
SELIG: “Well, Senator, I think that blockchain enables all new modes of commerce and really great economic mechanism design where people can participate in these networks like the Bitcoin network, earn rewards, and really earn a living by contributing to these networks. I think they’re vitally important infrastructure. We should have them built in the United States. We should make sure that we’re protecting our miners and infrastructure in the United States. In terms of some of these areas that are really beyond the scope of the CFTC’s remit around tax and other things, I think it’s vitally important that we work together with the Treasury and with our other agencies within the administration to make sure that we’re providing the right incentives to these market participants.”
TUBERVILLE: “Yeah. It just seemed a little unfair to me that if you’re a miner, you’ve got to pay taxes on it immediately and not wait [until] you sell it. You know, we hear that complain all the time. I hope it’s something we’d look into and encourage more mining. So, thank you very much.”
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.
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