Republican

Patrick

Donald Trump

United

United States Representative French Hill, chair of the House digital assets subcommittee, said he’s “still optimistic” that two key crypto industry bills can move forward in Congress before the end of the year.
“What we now need to see in this lame duck is what’s in the realm of possibility,” the Arkansas Republican said on Oct. 22 in a virtual appearance at DC Fintech Week.
<blockquote>
 “I’m still optimistic that FIT21, which is the regulatory framework bill, and the stablecoin bill have possible consideration in the lame duck.”
</blockquote>
A lame-duck session occurs when lawmakers meet after an election but before the beginning of the new Congress. This year’s elections are set for <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-election-optimism-2-2-billion-crypto-inflows-coinshares" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Nov. 5</a>, and the new Congress will be seated in January. 
The crypto industry has been closely following the progress of the two bills. One bill would give increased regulatory control to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is seen as more crypto-friendly than the Securities and Exchange Commission. The other would provide a regulatory framework for stablecoins. 
Still, while the <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/fit21-bill-crypto-congress-cftc-sec-us" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/news/fit21-bill-crypto-congress-cftc-sec-us">House passed</a> the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) in May, it has stalled in the Senate banking committee. 
Similarly, the House originated a bill on a regulatory framework for stablecoins that the Patrick McHenry-led House Financial Services Committee <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/payment-stablecoins-keep-your-coins-act-pass-house-committee" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">passed last July</a>, but it has also stalled. McHenry is a Republican from North Carolina.
“All lame duck sessions, they take the direction from who wins the top of the ticket,” Hill said. “So that will, I think, govern a bit of what we’re dealing with.”
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 <img alt="Crypto bills may move forward in ‘lame duck’ Congress, says Rep. Hill" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-10/0192b7cc-389c-76df-8f92-3ac7d7b809d7" title="">
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 Representative French Hill appearing virtually at DC Fintech Week. Source: YouTube
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Hill added that any movement on the bills is also contingent on the outgoing Congress passing final legislation, which includes the defense budgeting bill — the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
“That’s an interesting opportunity for Chairman McHenry to consider the possibility of a financial services priority attached to the NDAA,” Hill said.
He added if the <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/learn/how-crypto-politics-could-shape-the-next-us-presidential-election" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">current Congress</a> isn’t successful in passing the crypto laws “then it’ll be a top priority going into the 119th Congress.”
Related: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-conferences-swell-permissionless-regulation-election" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Crypto events turn to regulation and politics as US election looms</a>
CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam said on Oct. 22 that his agency was “handcuffed” <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/cftc-handcuffed-chair-claims-crypto-regulations-have-stalled" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/news/cftc-handcuffed-chair-claims-crypto-regulations-have-stalled">amid the pause</a> in crypto regulatory talks, and was confident a new president and Congress could make progress — but not before the end of the year. 
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-dropping-the-ball-crypto-should-improve-post-election-tether-ceo" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-dropping-the-ball-crypto-should-improve-post-election-tether-ceo">told</a> DC Fintech Week that he thinks the US is “dropping the ball” on crypto and that he hoped “sensible crypto regulations” would pass regardless of who wins the elections.
The US will head to the polls on Nov. 5, when the president, vice president, all 435 seats in the House and 34 out of the 100 Senate seats will be up for election.
National presidential polls from FiveThirtyEight <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2024/national/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">show</a> Democrat candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/learn/donald-trump-vs-kamala-harris-on-crypto-regulations" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Donald Trump</a> are neck-and-neck, with Harris leading by just 1.7 percentage points on Oct. 22.
Other polls <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/generic-ballot/2024/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">show</a> voters are also split on whether they’d rather Republicans or Democrats make up the next House and Senate, with Democrats leading by 1.3 percentage points.
Magazine: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/crypto-regulations-us-warren-bitcoin/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Lawmakers’ fear and doubt drives proposed crypto regulations in US</a>

Crypto bills may move forward in ‘lame duck’ Congress, says Rep. Hill

Cointelegraph

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