1/26/2012

NRECA offers its support for legislation, passed by the House Agriculture Committee, that will amend the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, allowing electric cooperatives to continue using derivatives to hedge commercial risk. H.R 3336, The Small Business Credit Availability Act, exempts small banks, credit unions and farm credit system lenders, including the electric cooperative owned National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC), from certain regulations under the Dodd-Frank Act that Congress intended to apply to larger banks. H.R. 3527, the Protecting Main Street End-Users form Excessive Regulation Act, will ensure that electric cooperatives and other commercial end-users are not defined as "swap dealers." And H.R. 2682, the Business Risk Mitigation and Price Stabilization Act of 2011, would exempt electric cooperatives and other end-users from margining requirements.

NRECA would like to thank Chairman Frank Lucas, Ranking Member Collin Peterson, Rep. Vicky Hartzler, Rep. Randy Hultgren, and Rep. Michael Grimm for their leadership on these issues. We urge a bipartisan effort to ensure passage for these three bills.