Yesterday’s one-day fintech conference in Lincoln, Nebraska dubbed “Flyover Fintech” and organized by freshman Congressmen Mike Flood (R, NE) and his staff, arguably yielded as many insights as a week-long Congressional hearing.
The only thing missing was the physical presence of elected Democrats. Maybe next year? Nevertheless, 250-strong assembled to hear, and share, the latest in digital assets efforts in DC and the U.S. as well as look to the blueprint being laid in Flood’s home state of Nebraska.
The highlight of the day came last when Rep. Flood, a capable interviewer, asked his fellow House Financial Services Committee members – Rep. French Hill (R, AR), Chair of the Digital Assets Subcommittee, and Rep. Warren Davidson (R, OH) – to join him on stage for a 40-minute Q&A that took attendees behind-the-scenes in Congress.
After covering the impact of FTX’s implosion and the buildup to the recent markups of the stablecoin and digital assets market structure bills, the Congressmen shared their best guess on next steps…
Partial spoiler:
1) The return of Senate Agriculture to the digital assets legislative mix;
2) House member education needs to happen before any House floor vote;
3) Lummis-Gillibrand (RFIA) need a state pathway in their bill.
Noting that Rep. Hill has been on the Financial Services Committee for nine years, and Congressman Davidson, has been on the committee for six and a half years, Flood began by asking for perspective on what it took to get the stablecoin bill to last week’s markup stage.
(Transcript lightly edited for clarity.)
REP FRENCH HILL: It’s been 15 months of bipartisan work between Rep. Maxine Waters (D, CA), who was the Chair of the HFS committee in the last Congress, and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R, NC), to come up with a stablecoin bill that would fill the gap. But it goes back a lot further than that.
We’ve had efforts since Rep. Davidson came to Congress. And, Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R, MN) came to Congress in my class in 2014 to try and move this conversation forward with a Financial Technology Task Force, where we uncovered exactly what we ought to be doing and how we ought to be doing it.
But then, the pandemic got in the way – I do think we would have made more progress if we hadn’t gone through the pandemic.
Last summer, [Maxine Waters and Patrick McHenry] set a goal of trying to get a consensus stablecoin bill through as the initial gateway [product] in the digital asset space. They got very close. And we picked up with Chair McHenry’s leadership this year. We’ve gotten a bipartisan bill through the House with more changes to come. But, now we have to obviously work with the Senate. Continue reading “House Republicans Talk Digital Assets Legislative Plan At Flyover Fintech”