On Thursday (tomorrow), the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry will hold a hearing examining derivatives reform that will feature testimony from Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Mary Schapiro, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Committee members are likely to ask questions about the agencies' work leading up to the MF Global bankruptcy, which has left farmer clients in the lurch. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a member of the Agriculture Committee, made the following comment on the hearing. Grassley has a scheduling conflict with the Judiciary Committee, where he serves as Ranking Member, but plans to attend the Agriculture Committee hearing as much as possible. If he can't attend, he will pose any questions he thinks were not asked to the witnesses for written responses for the hearing record. Also, the Agriculture Committee has scheduled an investigative hearing on the MF Global case for Dec. 13, so there will be continued opportunities to ask questions.
"I appreciate the committee leaders' attention to this issue. It's been weeks since MF Global's bankruptcy. The public is still in the dark on basic facts. Unanswered questions include who discovered that client money was missing, how much of that money is actually missing, and how much of the client money can be recovered. I hope the committee will be able to get some direct answers from Chairman Gensler and Chairman Schapiro. It's a good opportunity to ask the questions our constituents would ask if they could be there."
