US House Lawmakers on Both Agree on Need for Crypto Legislation

Legislators on both the right and also the left appear to be edging closer to some form of consensus regarding the necessity of establishing laws to control cryptocurrencies. This is the matter regardless of the fact that there is a significant ideological divide between the two sides.

Crypto Legislation

Rep. French Hill, a Republican from Arkansas, stated that his Democratic colleagues had indicated to him that they have been supporting “commonsense legislation for months.”

Hill stated in his opening remarks on Wednesday during a combined House Agriculture and House Financial Services subcommittee hearing that lawmakers want to work on legislation to have more US-based companies meet the standards. Hill’s remarks were in conjunction with the introduction of the hearing.

According to Hill, “however, if we fail to provide a functional framework for digital assets in this country, all we’re doing is forcing this activity to happen on offshore exchanges, rather than in a regulated US environment,” and this will affect American investors more than anything else.

Hill also mentioned that nobody is suggesting that crypto should be immune from the regulations or that a new system should be created for it.

Hill stated that there is nothing partisan about the process of crypto regulation.

According to Hill, “instead, we’re trying to apply the principle of’same risk, same regulation’ to amend existing law in order to establish the functional regulation of digital assets. This means that market participants will be brought into the regulatory perimeter in a way that is consistent with longstanding investor protections and that is tailored to the distinctive risks and benefits of the digital asset ecosystem.”

Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California and the former chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee mentioned in her opening remarks that legislation is required to regulate cryptocurrency.

According to Waters, “these should be bipartisan concerns, and legislation to address them should have a path to the President’s desk,” “I hope that during this Congress, we can quickly return to developing legislation together.”

Stark pushback

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-California) does not appear to be persuaded that the United States requires cryptocurrency.

During that hearing on Wednesday, the Democratic representative from California didn’t hold back at all.

In response to claims that the United States lags behind other countries in terms of crypto innovation, Sherman provided a rebuttal.

When talking about other areas where other countries are ahead of the US, Sherman appeared to connect it to drugs, “organ harvesting,” and tax evasion. He also mentioned other areas.

“I do not see the need to catch up,” stated Sherman. “I see no reason to.”

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