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Representative French Hill says two crypto-regulating bills in the US might make some progress on Capitol Hill before the current Congress disbands.
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United States Representative French Hill, the chair of the United States House digital assets subcommittee, says he’s “still optimistic” that two key crypto industry bills have a chance of moving forward in Congress before the end of the year.
“What we now need to see in this lame duck is what’s in the realm of possibility,” Representative Hill said on Oct. 22 in a virtual appearance at DC Fintech Week.
“I’m still optimistic that FIT21, which is the regulatory framework bill, and the stablecoin bill have possible consideration in the lame duck.”
A lame-duck session of Congress in the United States occurs whenever one Congress is in session after an election but before the beginning of the new Congress. This year’s elections are set for Nov. 5, and the new Congress is in January.
The crypto industry has been closely following the progress of the two bills. One bill would hand over more regulatory control to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which the space sees as a friendlier regulator toward crypto. Another would provide a regulatory framework for stablecoins.
However, while the House passed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) in May, it has stalled in the Senate banking committee.
Similarly, the House also started on a bill for a regulatory framework for stablecoins — which are currently governed by state-level money transmitter laws — which the Patrick McHenry-led House Financial Services Committee passed last July, but it has also stalled.
“All lame duck sessions, they take the direction from who wins the top of the ticket,” Hill said. “So that will, I think, govern a bit of what we’re dealing with.”
Representative French Hill appearing virtually at DC Fintech Week. Source: YouTube
He added any movement on the bills is also contingent on the outgoing Congress passing final legislation, which includes the defense budgeting bill — the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
“That’s an interesting opportunity for Chairman McHenry to consider the possibility of a financial services priority attached to the NDAA,” Hill said.
He added if the current Congress isn’t successful in passing the crypto laws “then it’ll be a top priority going into the 119th Congress.”
Related: Crypto events turn to regulation and politics as US election looms
CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam said on Oct. 22 that his agency was “handcuffed” amid the stall in crypto regulatory talks but was confident a new president and Congress could make progress, but not before the end of the year.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino also told DC Fintech Week that he thinks the US was “dropping the ball” on crypto and hoped that “sensible crypto regulations” would pass regardless of who wins the elections.
The US will head to the polls on Nov. 5, when the president, vice president, all 435 seats in the House and 34 out of the 100 Senate seats will be up for election.
National presidential polls from FiveThirtyEight show Democrat candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump are neck on neck, with Harris leading by just 1.7 percentage points on Oct. 22.
Other polls show voters are also split on whether they’d rather Republicans or Democrats to make up the next House and Senate, with Democrats leading by only 1.3 percentage points.
Magazine: Lawmakers’ fear and doubt drives proposed crypto regulations in US
This article first appeared at Cointelegraph.com News
