The incoming chair of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence said lawmakers should chart a more ambitious crypto agenda for the 119th Congress.
Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) will be only the second lawmaker to hold a crypto-focused gavel in the House, following now-HFSC Chair French Hill (R-Ark.). We discussed Steil’s plans and priorities for the job as Congress mulls significant changes to the financial system.
Crypto: Steil’s topline priorities won’t come as a shock to most financial policy watchers.
“We need to make sure that we’re doing a couple of things in the space — one, preventing fraud, protecting customers, and two, really importantly, ensuring the U.S. remains a leader in the market space,” Steil told us, pointing to competition from China.
But the Wisconsin Republican also made clear that high-profile crypto legislation that cleared the House last year would only be a starting point in the 119th Congress. “The playing field has shifted,” Steil said, pointing to the Republican Senate. The House passed the FIT for 21st Century Act last spring with dozens of Democrats in tow.
“I am not committing myself to the text of the bill from the last Congress,” Steil said. FIT 21 gave lawmakers a “starting point,” he said, adding: “There will be potential for real changes inside the legislation.”
And as we’ve written elsewhere, House lawmakers are focused squarely on work products that can survive the Senate. “The way that we’re successful in that is not simply passing a bill out of committee or passing it in the House, but getting it all the way across the line and signed into law,” Steil said.
On debanking — another political priority for the crypto sector — Steil is a bit more circumspect. “It’s important that we examine whether or not pressure was placed inappropriately by the administration to remove financial access to some innovative companies,” Steil said. “There’s a lot of questions that need to be asked.”
The other stuff: “Artificial intelligence” is a new titular focus for Steil’s subcommittee this year. The Wisconsin Republican’s main priority there is keeping the federal government out of its own way.
“Yes, you need to navigate the risks of a new technology. But you also need to leverage the benefits of a new technology,” Steil said. He added that “what we don’t want the federal government doing is preventing the technology from being implemented.”
That philosophy will also cover less flashy products. Steil has legislation on “earned wage access” programs, a quickly growing form of consumer finance that allows customers to access portions of their paycheck early, often for a fee.
Steil’s bill includes exemptions from the Truth in Lending Act for EWA programs. That law dictates some of the federal protections and disclosures that come with loan products.
Consumer groups don’t love EWA products, which they say bear an awfully close resemblance to payday loans. Fintech advocates argue they’re safer and less costly than other forms of emergency loans.