- The White House hindered U.S. lawmakers’ attempt to approve a stablecoin bill.
- While the opposition from the White House stalled the bill’s progress, the clash between both parties may have played a part.
White House Hinders the Approval of StableCoin Bill
After approving two major crypto bills this week, U.S. lawmakers have made another effort to approve a stablecoin bill. However, their attempt was halted by the White House.
House Financial Services Chair, Patrick McHenry stated that the White House hindered the approval of the bill despite the effort of the Republicans and Democrats.
On Thursday, there was a heated hearing of the stablecoin bill with Maxine Waters, a Representative of the Democrats, pointing fingers at the Chair of the House Financial Services. Maxine Waters claimed that McHenry was impatient.
The Democrat representative described the stablecoin bill as deeply problematic and bad for America. Waters also mentioned that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Department are not in support of the current version of the bill.
Presently, the bill allows state regulators to approve stablecoin issuances without confirmation from the Federal Reserve. The proposed stablecoin bill has also raised concerns that large companies like Meta or Amazon could issue their cryptocurrencies if passed.
In his opening speech, McHenry expressed his disappointment in the bill’s outcome after a 15-month-long negotiation.
“Today, I had hoped to announce an agreement with the ranking member on stablecoins legislation. That will not be the case.
A bipartisan deal was within reach—we were closer than we’ve ever been. A few small but nonetheless important provisions stood between us and a deal. It was the White House’s unwillingness to compromise that has once again brought negotiations to a halt,” McHenry stated.
Before the contentious debate about the stablecoin bill, some major crypto bills had been approved, including a bipartisan bill. The U.S. lawmakers have not witnessed such progress before with crypto-related bills. Despite the roadblock by the White House and the contentious debate by the House, the stablecoin bill rallied 34:16 votes among the lawmakers.
The Clarity for Payment StableCoins Act was introduced the previous week by the House’s Chair, McHenry. The stablecoin bill is centered on creating a regulatory framework for crypto tied to the value of fiat currency.
The bill’s markup was highly contentious, with Democrats objecting to every procedural point.
During the combative debate of the stablecoin’s bill, Stephen Lynch, a Democrat Representative, suggested the bill be postponed to September for voting.
“We have had no meaningful opportunity to amend this bill… that’s an embarrassment, We want to be heard, and we want to have input on this,” Lynch said.
Maxine Waters supported the request and encouraged McHenry to bring back the bill after working on it.
The committee addressed other bills and approved some, including a crypto bill that allows people to keep self-custodied wallets for crypto assets.
Some Democrats raised concerns about how the bill may enable people to hide assets from the government. Despite the objections, the bill was approved at 29:19.
