Subject: Commodities Legislation
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 11:14:00 -0700 (PDT)

Mark:  just a "heads up" that we may be called to react to this attached 
NYMERX press release since Enron added the provisions they oppose in the 
release.  H.R. 4541 passed the House 377-4 last evening and Enron strongly 
supports the legislation (I will e-mail Ken Lay's letter to Chairman Combest 
which expresses our support plus some talking points for your information.)  
There is a real opportunity to enact this legislation this Congress.  The 
last deal which needs to be cut is with Senator Gramm (he is the only 
obstacle to enactment in the Senate.)  The "Energy Provisions" discussed in 
this press release are NOT IN PLAY and will not be changed in the Senate.  It 
is other provisions which do not directly affect Enron which are being 
negotiated.

Contrary to this release's statement, no House member (other than one member 
who didn't make it for the vote,Congressman Baker) is asking for changes in 
the Senate.  The overwhelming numbers speak for themselves.  All and all, 
this press release is outlandish.

This will be our highest priority next week and changes occur by the hour.  
Please call if you do indeed get press calls and need our assistance.  Many 
thanks.

EXCHANGE EXPRESSES OUTRAGE AT HOUSE PASSAGE OF H.R. 4541

NEW YORK, NY, October 20, 2000 -- In response to passage by the House of
Representatives last night of H.R. 4541, the Commodity Futures
Modernization Act of 2000, New York Mercantile Exchange Chairman Daniel
Rappaport issued the following statement:

      The New York Mercantile Exchange finds it particularly egregious
that, by approving subsection (g) (3) of Section 106, the House would
not only remove the energy and metals marketplaces from public scrutiny
and regulatory oversight, but also do this in a fashion that
discriminates between established markets versus start-up electronic
forums.

It is particularly outrageous, at a time when every U.S. consumer is
feeling the impact of high energy prices, to allow lobbying by a small
group of vested interests to influence Congress to take these markets
out of the public eye and create an advantage for people to trade on
private, proprietary systems lacking the protections of a neutral
self-regulatory organization. Policy makers, regulators, and the
American public will be deprived of currently available information on
market participation, concentration, and financial performance.

This is not only a matter of ill-conceived public policy but is also
anti-competitive and directly contrary to the recommendations made by
the President'sWorking Group on financial markets.

Even House members who voted in favor of the bill have been publicly
quoted as saying that it must be changed in the Senate.

The New York Mercantile Exchange plans to fight adamantly at the Senate
level to demand that this subsection either be eliminated or be amended
to create a consistent regulatory policy for electronic and open outcry
markets.

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