“If we get this right, it sets us up to be able to outcompete the rest of the world.”
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill (AR-02) and Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01) appeared before a breakfast meeting of The Ripon Society this past Thursday morning to discuss the legislation they are developing to establish regulation of payment stablecoins, the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy (STABLE) Act of 2025.
Hill was first sworn in to represent Arkansas’s Second Congressional District in January of 2015. He currently serves as Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee in the 119th Congress, and in the 118th Congress, he served as the Committee’s Vice Chairman and as Chairman of the new subcommittee tasked with overseeing all areas related to digital assets and financial technology.
Steil, who was first elected in 2018 and has served on the Financial Services Committee since coming to Congress, is leading the Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence in the 119th Congress. As Subcommittee Chairman, Steil is tasked with jurisdiction over digital assets, cryptocurrencies, stable assets, and central bank digital currencies, among others.
“Both of us have been connected for essentially all of the last Congress and in this Congress on putting forward the kind of regulatory framework that we need for innovation in the future for digital assets,” Hill stated in his opening remarks.
“Business is going to be moving – not exclusively, and not instantly – to writing applications for blockchains. Blockchains will be able to be used to lower cost, increase accuracy, and reduce fraud in various applications.
“Blockchain is an operating technology. One of the key considerations of closing a deal or doing a transaction on a blockchain is having a tokenized payment. We want the U.S. to dominate in this business.”
“We have a huge opportunity to make sure that we get the regulatory framework right in the United States if we step out 50,000 feet,” Steil stated matter-of-factly in his opening remarks.
“What we’re trying to do under the leadership of Chairman French Hill, is put forward that legal framework for two key pieces of legislation,” Steil continued. “One is market structure, and I think we’ll have an opportunity to introduce a draft text on that in the not-too-distant future, as well as the STABLE Act, which addresses the legal framework for stablecoins.”
The Badger State legislator then discussed the work being done in the upper chamber to see this through.
“Senator Hagerty introduced it in the Senate, along with Senator Lummis, Senator Gillibrand, and Senator Scott – the Genius Act. There are a handful of things that we have to harmonize between the two pieces of legislation. When they were first introduced, they were maybe was 80 percent similar, and as we’ve come closer, we’re probably 90, 95 percent similar. Now it’s just a process of making sure that we fully harmonize the bills between the House and the Senate.
“The good news is, there’s a real appetite and energy to do that. So, if you look at the STABLE Act when it passed through the Financial Services Committee, six Democrats joined with us in moving that ahead. I think that opens an opportunity for a large bipartisan vote on the House floor. And in the Senate markup, they had good Democratic engagement, which I think sets us up for crossing the essential 60-vote threshold.”
Hill further expanded on the importance of harmonizing the two bills.
“That dollar-backed stablecoin, that tokenized payment for a bank to issue or a non-bank to issue under the same capital, same regulatory, same liquidity, same oversight guidelines – we want that to be the best in the world, which is why we’re going to get this bill tightened down between the House and the Senate. But if we pass the stablecoin bill only, all you’d have is this thing called a stablecoin under U.S. law.”
“Regulatory clarity is brought about by law change, and Bryan’s going to lead that with Cynthia Lummis and others in the Senate where we get the market structure bill,” he continued. “My goal is to get both the stablecoin legislation and that market structure framework bill both to President Trump’s desk by August 1st.”
Following their opening remarks, the pair of legislators were asked a number of questions, including one about the international implications of establishing this new regulatory framework and digital currency.
“The EU has now defined digital payments, tokenized payments, and blockchain over there. But in a typical EU format, it’s pretty heavy-handed,” answered Hill. “Internationally, I want us to lead. I want the coders to come back. They moved offshore in the last two years. We want that capital to come back. We don’t want to read about some venture capital fund opening up an office outside the U.S.
“We’ll lead in this technology space. The dollar will have another reason why people will transact in dollars from a reserve currency point of view, because I believe that once Bryan’s bill is law, the dollar-backed stablecoin will be the default stablecoin regime, and other nations will adopt something similar. Why? Because we will grant them reciprocity on those regulatory relationships, whether it’s in Canberra, Australia, or London, and I think that’s important.”
“If we get this right, it sets us up to be able to outcompete the rest of the world,” added Steil. “Right now, we domicile the world’s largest tech companies and we’re the beneficiaries of that from wealth creation and retirement accounts, pension funds, as well as jobs. If we get this right – and if you believe like me, that that’s where we’re headed – we’re in a position to continue that economic dominance. But we have to get this right, which is why the regulatory framework that we’re working on so important.”
To view the remarks of Chairman Hill and Chairman Steil before The Ripon Society Thursday morning, please click the link below:
The Ripon Society is a public policy organization that was founded in 1962 and takes its name from the town where the Republican Party was born in 1854 – Ripon, Wisconsin. One of the main goals of The Ripon Society is to promote the ideas and principles that have made America great and contributed to the GOP’s success. These ideas include keeping our nation secure, keeping taxes low and having a federal government that is smaller, smarter and more accountable to the people.