{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-speaks-with-cftc-chairman-nominee-at-confirmation-hearing/", "Tuberville Speaks with CFTC Chairman Nominee at Confirmation Hearing", "2025-11-20", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "Senate", "AL", "Tommy Tuberville", "T000278", "www.tuberville.senate.gov", "tuberville", "https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Yesterday, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) spoke with Mike Selig, President Trump\u2019s nominee to chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), at his confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. During their conversation, Senator Tuberville spoke with Mr. Selig about removing barriers to make the markets more efficient for participants.\n\nExcerpts from Senator Tuberville\u2019s conversation with Mr. Selig can be found below, and the full exchange can be viewed on YouTube or Rumble.\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cThank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Selig\u2014congratulations on your nomination. A common complaint that I hear from participants in the markets is that CFTC has been failing to do the basic blocking and tackling of its core responsibilities. Obtaining a license from the CFTC has become significantly more costly and time consuming. How do you plan to restore the CFTC\u2019s reputation along these lines?\u201d\n\nSELIG: \u201cThank you, Senator, and I really enjoyed our time in your office yesterday talking through these and other issues. You raise a very important issue at the CFTC. Spending many years in private practice, working with clients that want their applications processed, that want to get answers on their very important questions\u2014it\u2019s vitally important that the CFTC gives the attention that these market participants deserve to the market participants. As I mentioned in my opening statement, the staff regulation by enforcement and the rule by unwritten law through interpretive guidance that\u2019s not provided in any sort of written form what we call law and many respects and through no action letters really is unacceptable. And so, we need the staff to work together with our applicants, with our registrants to get their businesses going. If confirmed, my job is to get the agency running like a business to really make sure that applications come in. They\u2019re processed efficiently and quickly so people can go on with their business. And that\u2019s gonna be a key priority of mine. I also intend to evaluate the processes in place currently within the commission to ensure that they\u2019re efficient. If there are steps that are unnecessary, we\u2019ll take them out. If there\u2019s things we need to be doing, we\u2019ll add them into the process, but I wanna make sure that people aren\u2019t waiting six months for a phone call from the staff.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cThank you. Will you commit to working to resolve outstanding issues restricting cross border trade flows in over-the-counter markets?\u201d\n\nSELIG: \u201cSenator, thank you. That\u2019s another important issue before the commission. I think it\u2019s critical that we have substituted compliance in place where it makes sense. We need to deregulate with our allies, make sure that they\u2019re also allowing for our market participants to enter their markets. We should do the same. So, I do think it\u2019s vitally important to remove these blockages to over-the-counter derivatives markets.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cYeah. How would you balance enforcement actions with providing clear forward-looking guidances to innovators seeking to comply?\u201d\n\nSELIG: \u201cSenator, I think as I mentioned earlier, we\u2019ve just massively overregulated the real-world economy. We\u2019ve pushed a lot of our innovators offshore with regulation by enforcement, smothered them in red tape, really not allowed them to go do the things they do best\u2014be creative and build great businesses. And so, I would remove a lot of these barriers that really are in their way to\u2014from success. I think the most important thing, as I mentioned, is to remove a lot of these unwritten rules of the road, really create clear and simple guidelines that you don\u2019t need a high-priced law firm to figure out. I would create make sure that our forms are really efficient and able to be, you know, really easily understood and work with, of course, stakeholders to figure out the best path forward, and I\u2019d love to work with this committee on these issues as well.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cI\u2019d like to hear your thoughts on something. I hear a lot from our Bitcoin miners. Bitcoin\u2014and as crypto is\u2014a commodity. If we sell corn, if we sell cotton, we pay taxes on it when we sell that commodity. But when a Bitcoin is mined from a miner, IRS is standing next door ready to get their money from this Bitcoin. What\u2019s your thoughts on that?\u201d\n\nSELIG: \u201cWell, Senator, I think that blockchain enables all new modes of commerce and really great economic mechanism design where people can participate in these networks like the Bitcoin network, earn rewards, and really earn a living by contributing to these networks. I think they\u2019re vitally important infrastructure. We should have them built in the United States. We should make sure that we\u2019re protecting our miners and infrastructure in the United States. In terms of some of these areas that are really beyond the scope of the CFTC\u2019s remit around tax and other things, I think it\u2019s vitally important that we work together with the Treasury and with our other agencies within the administration to make sure that we\u2019re providing the right incentives to these market participants.\u201d\n\nTUBERVILLE: \u201cYeah. It just seemed a little unfair to me that if you\u2019re a miner, you\u2019ve got to pay taxes on it immediately and not wait [until] you sell it. You know, we hear that complain all the time. I hope it\u2019s something we\u2019d look into and encourage more mining. So, thank you very much.\u201d\n\nSenator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans\u2019 Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-speaks-with-cftc-chairman-nominee-at-confirmation-hearing/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9675320945680141, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}