On Thursday, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee (HSFC) advanced a bill to establish a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins.
Stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency typically pegged to a traditional asset, often the U.S. dollar.
The bill would have the U.S. Federal Reserve write requirements for issuing stablecoins while preserving the authority of state regulators.
After 15 months of negotiations, McHenry claimed the committee was “closer than we’d ever been” to a bipartisan deal aside from a few “small provisions.”
“It was the White House’s unwillingness to compromise that has once again brought negotiations to a halt,” he said. He did not specify which elements of the bill the Biden administration had objected to.
The ranking member of the agency, Maxine Waters, blamed McHenry for his impatience and for pushing forward a “deeply flawed” bill.
She said the bill lacked support from both the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve.
Maxine Waters says that the bill would allow state regulators to approve stablecoin issuances without Federal Reserve input. This provisions has raised concerns that companies like Amazon and Facebook could issue their own digital currencies if the bill became law.
“We too would like a real bi-partisan bill,” said Waters in her opening statement on Thursday. “I don’t know what the rush is. Why the rush at this particular time?”
Waters and Representative Patrick McHenry, the chair of the committee, had been in discussions about the bill for a number of weeks but were ultimately unable to reach an agreement, McHenry said.
Also Read: US House Financial Services Committee Unveils Bipartisan Stablecoin Bill
