Clinton was not the GOP whip (the one lines up the votes for a bill).
The CFMA was in a number of committees for two years. Democrats were suspicious of it.
It could not get out of committee.:
GOVTRACK.US
H.R. 5660: Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 <106th Congress1999-2000>
Sponsor: Rep. Thomas Ewing show cosponsors (4)
Cosponsors:Tom Bliley Larry Combest John LaFalce James Leach
Text: Summary | Full Text
Status: Introduced Dec 14, 2000
Referred to Committee View Committee Assignments
Reported by Committee------ (did not occur)
House Vote ----------------(did not occur)
Senate Vote ---------------(did not occur)
Signed by President -------(did not occur)
This bill never became law. This bill was proposed in a previous session of Congress. Sessions of Congress last two years, and at the end of each session all proposed bills and resolutions that haven't passed are cleared from the books. Members often reintroduce bills that did not come up for debate under a new number in the next session.
Who Wrecked the Economy: Foreclosure PhilBut Gramm's most cunning coup on behalf of his friends in the financial services industry—friends who gave him millions over his 24-year congressional career—came on December 15, 2000. It was an especially tense time in Washington. Only two days earlier, the Supreme Court had issued its decision on Bush v. Gore. President Bill Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress were locked in a budget showdown. It was the perfect moment for a wily senator to game the system.
As Congress and the White House were hurriedly hammering out a $384-billion omnibus spending bill, Gramm slipped in a 262-page measure called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. Written with the help of financial industry lobbyists and cosponsored by Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the chairman of the agriculture committee, the measure had been considered dead — even by Gramm. Few lawmakers had either the opportunity or inclination to read the version of the bill Gramm inserted. "Nobody in either chamber had any knowledge of what was going on or what was in it," says a congressional aide familiar with the bill's history.]
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In June 2000, Senator Gramm co-sponsored the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, a measure aimed at deregulating certain kinds of futures trading, but not energy futures. That bill never made it to the floor, and thus quietly died. Six months later, on December 15, Gramm curiously turned up as co-sponsor of a bill with the same name, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which did deregulate energy futures and which,
without undergoing the usual committee hearings and preliminary votes, was immediately attached as a rider to an 11,000-page appropriations bill. It passed and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton six days later. Few lawmakers had likely perused the rider carefully, if they even knew it was there.
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Note that the Omnibus Spending Bill 2000 up for a vote a few days before the close of the session, was necessary to keep the Government funded and operating. It was veto proof.
Note that at the time, many in and out of Government were concerned about a couple developments. There was growing competition with Wall street coming from ever larger Japanese banks and rapidly modernizing London financial markets (particularly with regard to electronic trading). Its true, the administration was concerned that Wall street banks might lose a competitive advantage vis-a-vis either of these competitor markets.
But most Democrats were suspicious of moving too rapidly to change laws or of loosening regulations governing financial institutions (especially for these new derivitve instruments which nobody seemed to fully understand). Of course, Alan Greenspan didn't believe we needed any controls at all on business. He thought everybody would be honest players, even when hundreds of millions of dollars were in play. Usually by the time people reach the age of eleven or twelve they realize that people have their weaknesses and cannot ALWAYS be counted on to 'play fair' (that is, given the opportunity, some people will cheat in order to win). I guess you could say when you start to realize this you begin to lose the naivete of childhood and start to become a grownup (I wonder if Greespan believes Peter Pan can fly?).
Deregulation has for decades been a Republican religion. During the Cheney Regime they took to dismantling the regulatory structures and functions of Government everywhere they could. This along with the cheap money policy pushed by Cheney Regime (to keep the economy looking as if it was healthy when it actually wasn't) caused the greatest economic disaster this country has seen since the first Great Depression.