The American Soybean Association (ASA) and a coalition of other major farm and ag stakeholders sent a letter to President Barack Obama regarding open seats on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The CFTC consists of five commissioners appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, to serve staggered five-year terms. The President, with the consent of the Senate, designates one of the commissioners to serve as chairman. No more than three commissioners at any one time may be from the same political party. There are currently two open seats; one for each party.

“Now is a critical time to consider nominating an individual to be Commissioner that has knowledge of agricultural commodity markets and the issues that affect the ability of our sector to use those markets as risk management tools,” the groups state in the letter. “Throughout the agency’s existence there have always been Commissioners that intricately understood agricultural futures markets, as well as policy issues that impact the agricultural sector…With the passage of Dodd-Frank, the CFTC has taken on much more responsibility for overseeing financial markets than in the past. This recently has led to a makeup of the Commission that largely reflects backgrounds and experience in the financial sector.”

The letter asks President Obama to “ensure we have at least one Commissioner with a background in, and familiarity with, issues important to production agriculture and agribusiness.” Click here to read the full text of the letter.