According to various news sources, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a $125 billion spending bill for the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
However, the appropriations bills are being constrained by concerns over the federal budget deficit. The newly approved budget is $7 billion less than President Barack Obama requested. About 5 billion of the reduction is in discretionary programs, which will get about $17 billion under the plan. Moreover, the plan includes cuts in requested funding for food safety, nutrition programs for women and children and for the CFTC, which oversees derivatives markets. Payments to growers of wheat, corn, soybeans and other crops were left largely intact.
As the result, funding the CFTC with less money than Obama requested will leave markets vulnerable to speculators whose actions will raise consumer prices.
