U.S. House Financial Services Committee Passes U.S. Stablecoin Regulation Bill

Authors: Jesse Hamilton, Jack Schickler, CoinDesk; Compilers: Songxue, Jinse Finance

This is the progress made so far on stablecoin legislation in the U.S. Congress, but the progress has been marred by partisan conflict.

A Republican-backed bill was defeated by a committee so it could go to a vote in the House, with the Senate and the president's signature set to be its final hurdles.

On Thursday, lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives passed the next step in stablecoin legislation, even though the House Financial Services Committee pushed the bill to a potential full vote without bipartisan support, as Chairman Patrick McHenry (Patrick McHenry) (R, N.C.) blamed opposition from the White House for the impasse.

**Thursday's hearing ended with a 34-16 vote, allowing the bill to move to broader consideration in the House. ** The committee's Democratic leader, Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said it was McHenry who effectively terminated negotiations early after the talks broke down the night before the hearing. The fight has tarnished the culmination of congressional stablecoin progress.

“Today I would have liked to announce an agreement with senior members on stablecoin legislation,” McHenry said at the start of the hearing. "That's not going to be the case ... It's the White House's reluctance to compromise that is causing the talks to stall again."

The news comes a day after finance-focused lawmakers introduced three bills on cryptocurrency issues for a vote in the plenary session of the House of Representatives, the first time they have introduced laws specifically on the topic. Also today, the House Agriculture Committee subsequently approved the crypto market regulation bill.

McHenry said he was "disappointed" with the outcome of the stablecoin work after 15 months of negotiations, but he did not explain the details of the latest disagreement with the administration.

Any U.S. stablecoin bill would have to win the support of the Democratic-led Senate, so a bill introduced only by House Republicans, rather than a bipartisan effort, might be less likely to sway the rest of the Senate. ** McHenry pushed through the bill despite strong opposition from committee Democrats, which could please fellow Republicans but could also hurt the bill's chances of becoming law. **

Waters said** the bill is "seriously problematic and bad for the United States" and that it "facilitates a race to the bottom by creating 58 different licenses" that allow issuers to include a wide variety of licenses in their reserves. assets, and allow big companies like Meta or Walmart to issue tokens. **

According to Waters, Democrats are concerned about the reserve provisions in the bill, as well as the two sides' differing views on the role that federal regulators should play with regard to stablecoin issuers, particularly the Fed's enforcement and enforcement of issuers licensed by state agencies. scope of supervision.

"I urge Republicans to withdraw this extremist legislation from consideration," Waters stressed, despite the 10 p.m. vote on the bill. "Why the rush? Why can't we continue negotiating?"

Last week, McHenry (rn.c.) introduced the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act, the latest in a series of draft stablecoin legislation he has worked on since last year, which will Aims to eventually provide a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of fiat currencies. Stablecoins are a core element of the crypto market, providing stable tokens that investors can use to buy and sell more volatile assets.

Deliberations on the Republican stablecoin bill were intense Thursday, with Republicans pushing through every procedural point and Democrats stalling. The committee’s efforts to publicly negotiate the details of the bill underscore the ongoing stalemate over U.S. stablecoin regulation.

A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither the Federal Reserve nor the U.S. Treasury currently support the bill, Waters said. **

During the debate, Massachusetts Democrat Stephen Lynch suggested delaying the vote until September, saying Democrats did not have enough opportunity to express their ideas. Waters backed the request, asking McHenry to consider getting the job done while Congress recessed in August and come back after the recess to finish it.

"We don't have any meaningful opportunity to change this bill ... it's embarrassing," Lynch said. "We want to be heard, we want to have an opinion on it."

Several Democrats, including Representatives, came as the committee approved broader market structure legislation this week. Jim Himes (D-Connecticut), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) — All Republican members of the group who supported the approval of the stablecoin bill.

The committee also discussed several other bills on Thursday, including a bill introduced by Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio, R-Ohio) that would protect the ability of people to keep self-custodial wallets for crypto assets. right. The committee voted 29 to 21 to pass the bill despite some Democrats arguing it would allow the illicit misuse of crypto assets and allow people to hide assets from the government.