WASHINGTON
– Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) along with his colleagues Sens. Maggie Hassan
(D-N.H.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) introduced the
CFTC Fund Management Act
to
expand a whistleblower reward fund in danger of drying up due to the increasing
success of the program. This bipartisan bill allows the commission to set aside
more money from fines collected to pay whistleblower awards and secures the
long-term success of the program without spending a single taxpayer dollar.
“The
CFTC whistleblower program has become far more successful than Congress
imagined when we set it up back in 2010. The risk of a cash shortage is so
great, the commission recently told my office it’s temporarily paused review of
some cases that could wipe out the Customer Protection Fund used to pay
whistleblowers. I’ve been raising concerns about this issue for months and
introduced legislation last year to address this problem, but Congress dragged
its feet. Now whistleblowers are being asked to pay the price by waiting until
the government can afford to review their claims. We can’t allow this program
to become a victim of its own success. Congress has to pass this bill now to
ensure that the CFTC whistleblower program remains solvent and can continue to
grow,” Grassley said.
“Rooting
out waste, fraud, and abuse is essential to protecting taxpayer dollars, and I
am glad to partner with Senator Grassley to help ensure that the incentives for
whistleblowers to call out this type of wrongdoing remain in place,” Hassan
said. “By raising the cap on the
whistleblower reward fund we will help prevent this successful program from
becoming depleted. This is an important bipartisan bill and I urge my
colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join us in supporting its swift
passage.”
The
Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) relies on whistleblower
disclosures to identify cases of fraud and other illegal activities and collect
fines on behalf of the American people. The CFTC operates a Customer Protection
Fund, established by Congress in 2010, to hold funds that are used to reward whistleblowers
for their disclosures. That fund is also used to pay for operating expenses and
educational initiatives associated with the whistleblower office. Under current
law, the Customer Protection Fund is capped at $100 million, and any fines
collected after the account reaches the cap are remitted to the Treasury’s
general fund. In recent years, the increasing size and quantity of fines
stemming from successful whistleblower disclosures have led to larger reward
disbursements, which risk depleting the fund before it can be replenished.
The CFTC
Fund Management Act raises the fund cap to $150 million and temporarily
establishes a separate account to house funds used to pay operating and
programming expenses. The creation of a separate account guarantees that the
office will be able to continue operations should the overall amount held in
the Customer Protection Fund drop to a critical level.
