Chairman Hill joins Fox Business to discuss the urgency to pass the CLARITY Act

[00:00:00]Chairman, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks so much for being here.

[00:00:02]>> Maria, it's great to be back with you.

[00:00:04]>> Give us your thoughts on this package.

[00:00:06]Can it pass before recess? Because I know there's lots of pushback on spending dollar for dollar in terms of cuts and in fact getting parts of the Save America Act over the finish line.

[00:00:17]What are your expectations?

[00:00:18]>> Well, first let me congratulate Jody Arrington and and Mike Johnson for trying to thread this needle of how to set some priorities for reconciliation 3.0.

[00:00:28]National security being the most preeminent. President Trump also wants to have the ability to help our farmers which continue to go through a tough environment and we haven't been able to complete our agriculture reauthorization bill. And then finally there's some key funding to get Save America through the Congress using reconciliation to encourage our states to have much higher voter integrity.

[00:00:51]I think the the speaker set up a good plan. We've gotten that out of committee, but I'd say the concerns are with offsets both in the House as well as over in the Senate. Can we offset some of this spending with saving from other parts of the government?

[00:01:06]>> Yeah, because I think the House plan increases the deficit to pay for the package and there's going to be a fight in the Senate because they're expecting offsets and delaying passage in the near term unless they see offsets particularly now that we have Senate Budget Committee Chairman incoming as Ron Johnson who's been talking about the the need to cut spending as well.

[00:01:27]>> So that's that sets up I think a good debate on this bill. If we get this bill out of the House >> [clears throat] >> and get it to the Senate, it will allow the new Senate Budget Chair Johnson to see if the Senate can identify some savings offsets particularly for the Save America spending and the agricultural spending.

[00:01:48]And the senators may want to advance a higher level of defense spending. So this is very much a work in progress. I hope we can do it because I think, um, it's an important that we have the national security funding stable. Uh, that's a goal for President Trump. It's a goal for House Republicans.

[00:02:04]>> Absolutely. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans meeting with President Trump yesterday hoping to get his stamp of approval on new language for the Clarity Act. You've worked so hard on all of this digital assets work. The House sent it to the Senate a year ago. Senator Cynthia Lummis joined me earlier this week on the status of the Clarity Act, and here are her expectations. Watch this.

[00:02:27]Your digital asset market structure Clarity Act would create a regulatory framework, establish new SEC disclosure rules for certain tokens, provide greater clarity for the crypto industry, uh, and the bill seeks to expand law enforcement tools to combat crypto-related crime by applying anti-money laundering and sanctions rules to crypto exchanges, but you can't get it over the finish line. What's the problem?

[00:02:49]>> It's taken us virtually every day for the last 10 months, uh, to get this bill in the condition it's in today, and we're ready. It's very important that we get this bill across the finish line before the August recess begins, uh, so we can make the markets aware of the stability, uh, that will be provided to them if they remain onshore in the United States to do business. This is a pivotal time for the industry, and we want to meet their needs.

[00:03:24]>> So, is it fair to say this bill will be back on it will be on the Senate floor the week of July 20th?

[00:03:31]>> Well, I expect it'll be that week.

[00:03:36]>> Congressman, you and other members of the House Financial Services Committee are in New York to hold a field hearing on this bill. What are your expectations?

[00:03:43]>> Well, Maria, we're here at Federal Hall.

[00:03:45]>> [clears throat] >> We're here at Federal Hall in New York today to hold a field field hearing to commemorate that 1-year anniversary of passing Clarity with 78 Democratic votes last summer. I want to commend Senator Senator Lummis, Senator Scott, and many others on both sides of the aisle that have been trying to get Clarity through the Senate. I think we're on the cusp of doing that. This is, as Cynthia said, a key time. I'm so pleased John Thune, the leader in the Senate, has set a date to bring this bill to the floor. We've done 4 years of work on this under the leadership of former Chairman Patrick McHenry, Bryan Steil, who you just had on, has done a marvelous job this Congress, and it's time to close the deal. We need to get Clarity in place because of a key point I always make. If you have genius and dollar-backed stablecoins, which we have, signed into law by President Trump last July, but you do not have a market framework, market structure bill, then you have like passed the authorization to have a cell phone, but no cell network. There's no ecosystem to support the use of that cell phone. So, that's what I think that it's so critical that we get the companion legislation, framework legislation completed to be married then to the implementation of genius for dollar-backed stablecoins.

[00:04:59]>> You're right, but President Trump is probably going to be zeroing in on these conflict of interest provisions, and I'd like to know if you believe they are going to be acceptable to the president because I know the Democrats are trying to push in limits on the president's crypto endeavors.

[00:05:21]>> Well, look, the president and the vice president, as elected by the people under the Constitution, have a a little different complete oversight than members of the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the executive branch officials. Everybody has an ethical obligation. Everybody has a disclosure obligation. Everyone has a divestiture type obligation, but they're not the same. And so, I think the president has worked hard with his lawyers to try to find a way to meet whatever the Senate Democrats requirements are on ethics. We did this last summer with a rule of construction. Plus, I always say that if you had the market framework law in place, you're putting all crypto under that. So, if you're concerned about meme coins, they'd have to meet a listing standard, they'd be on an exchange, they'd have disclosure.

[00:06:11]All that kind of transparency would be placed if we put this bill in place. And that's why the biggest I think ethical oversight responsibility would just be to have this framework put in place.

[00:06:23]>> All right. Well, meanwhile, Republicans are facing another ticking clock, the end of the federal fiscal year, September 30th, and Democrats are already threatening another government shutdown before the midterm elections.

[00:06:34]After two record-breaking shutdowns over the past year, House Speaker Mike Johnson says he may put a stopgap spending measure on the floor next week to keep the government funded through the midterms. Congressman, how do you deal with the fact that you're trying to govern, and every couple of months you've got another government shutdown because the Democrats will do anything to stop the president's agenda?

[00:06:54]>> It's nuts. I think Senator Schumer, you know, for months shut down the government over border security and keeping the homeland safe. Here we are on the 25th anniversary of 9/11 coming up in just a few weeks. I'm very concerned about homeland security and our national security. Shutdowns do nothing. They cost the government more, they cost the taxpayers more, and it's unfair to the American people to put up with that nonsense. So, I hope that Speaker Johnson will put a continuing resolution so that we can go into the election season with the confidence that our government's fully funded to protect the American people.

[00:07:30]>> Yeah, that is fair. Congress scoring a rare bipartisan win meanwhile after the 21st Century Roads to Housing Act became law. Mr. Chairman, you worked on that for some time. You're now pushing for another bipartisan package, urging the Senate to pass what you are calling the Invest Act. This legislation would make a host of changes to American investment law, including expanded investor access to private funds and private companies.

[00:07:54]Congressman, do you think the Senate can get behind this before the end of the the Congress in in December, the end of the year?

[00:08:02]And tell us about investing in private.

[00:08:04]What do you want to see change?

[00:08:05]>> You bet.

[00:08:06]Well, first let me compliment Chairwoman Ann Wagner of uh St. Louis. She's done an outstanding job bringing Invest through the House process. Strong bipartisan vote, over 300 members in the House voted for Invest. Secondly, of the 22 major provisions in that bill, 19 of them have bipartisan support over in the Senate. They have Senate companions. And so, Chairman Tim Scott of the Banking Committee and I believe this should be the next priority for our two committees is getting capital formation right. This bill lowers the cost for being a public company. This bill improves the ability for companies across the country to raise venture capital more effectively.

[00:08:47]This is so key for the rise of the rest, Steve Case's mantra that we really benefit capital formation across the whole nation, not just on the coast. And this gives individual investors more ability to have choice in their investing. For example, we changed the accredited investor rule from back in 1982 to let individuals invest in private companies and participate in private placements based on their professional expertise, not just their net worth. I think it's a great change in this bill. I think should be and will be a priority for both chambers between now and the end of the year.

[00:09:22]>> Yeah. You know, I like that because it not only encourages and and allows investment in private companies, but it's also encouraging companies to go public. And that, you know, in the face of tight regulations that have what?

[00:09:37]They've caused companies to say we don't want to go public. I know Paul Atkins is looking at this as a big priority to get the numbers up in terms of IPOs.

[00:09:47]>> [music] >> You bet. That's critical and we need more public companies so our investors, our families have more opportunities to see their net worth grow.

[00:09:54]>> Yeah. Mr. Chairman, it's great to see you this morning. We'll be watching your work. Thank you. Congressman French