Rep. Hill says he plans to work with House Agriculture on crypto legislation

The chair of a recently created House Financial Services panel focused on digital assets said the panel plans to work with the House Agriculture Committee on a regulatory framework on cryptocurrency.  

“We’re going to do our best to work in tandem with House Ag on this process because I think that is effective,” said Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., on Thursday at a Milken Institute Future of Digital Assets Symposium.  

The House Agriculture Committee has jurisdiction over the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and one of the largest regulators of crypto, bitcoin. Committee Chair Glenn "G.T." Thompson, R-Pa., introduced a bill to allow crypto exchanges to register with the CFTC last year. 

Hill was picked to chair the subcommittee on Financial Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion earlier this year. 

Hil also said on Thursday “our goal” is to create a regulatory framework for crypto. A first step could be a focus on stablecoins, Hill said, though he expressed some hesitancy. 

“My instinct might say if we pick up where we left off, on stablecoins first, but I’m not sure I can do that,” Hill said. “Part of that is where is this administration on constructive work with Congress on a framework?” 

In the last Congress, now House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., along with former Chair Maxine Waters, D-Calif., worked behind the scenes to figure out a deal on how to regulate stablecoins. Draft legislation included creating a federal framework around stablecoins and temporarily banning the types of payment coins that are not backed by outside assets. But McHenry blamed the Treasury Department for holding up the talks. 

The new subcommittee will cover “providing clear rules of the road among federal regulators for the digital asset ecosystem” and “developing policies that promote financial technology to reach underserved communities.” 

Hill along with Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., also introduced the Central Bank Digital Currency Study Act in 2021, which would have required the Federal Reserve and a handful of federal agencies to conduct a study on the impact of introducing a central bank digital currency.