Members of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Wednesday raised doubts about whether the agency will be able to meet deadlines for imposing position limits as required under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.

“This is one that Congress clearly wanted done earlier than other things,” CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton said. “I know [CFTC] staff is working very hard, but yet I still don’t have any paper.

“This thing didn’t fall out of the sky. We’ve had it for four months and we’re supposed to be implementing it [by] mid-January, and so I think it’s time for us to do something. Even on our Dec. 9 meeting I think we should try to get it done,” he said.

Commissioner Jill Sommers echoed Chilton’s sentiment. The Dodd-Frank Act requires the CFTC to impose limits on exempt commodities, including natural gas and other energy products, by Jan. 17.

The new rule — which is the most controversial currently being considered by the CFTC — will extend to all physical commodities in both the futures and swaps markets (see Daily GPI, Dec. 2).

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