Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner (CFTC) Jill Sommers, one of two Republicans at the agency, informed President Obama that she plans to resign at the end of March, more than a year before her current term ends. Sommers, who has not indicated what she may do once she leaves the CFTC, said she wants to remain at the Commission until it approves the last group of Dodd-Frank rules to reform the derivatives market. She and Commissioner Scott O’Malia, the only other Republican, often joined forces to oppose proposals supported by the majority. Sommers joined the CFTC in August 2007 for a term that expired in April 2009. She was renominated by Obama to serve a second term, which is scheduled to end in 2014. “Jill has worked to bring common-sense swaps market reforms to life and to safeguard the integrity of the futures market. [She] has been essential to these…efforts. I wish [her] well in all of her future pursuits,” said CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler. Sommers has worked in the commodity futures and options industry throughout her career. In 2005, she was the policy director and head of government affairs for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and prior to that she worked in the government affairs office of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), helping to draft the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Since the five-member Commission is limited to three members from a single party and the it currently has three Democrats, Sommers’ successor would have to be a Republican or from another party.

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