Congressman Flood & Chairman McHenry Reflect on Speaker Pro Tempore, Digital Assets during Fireside Chat
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA – Recently, U.S. Congressman Mike Flood was joined by Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry for a frank fireside chat during this year's Flyover Fintech conference. The two discussed legislative agendas for the remainder of the Congress while also reflecting on Chairman McHenry's time as Speaker pro tempore.
Video of Rep. Flood's discussion can be found here. Financial Services Committee legislative agenda remarks are from 00:00-19:05 while reflecting on the Speakership and Congress is from 19:05-38:12. News outlets are welcome to use the footage for their reporting purposes. Brief excerpts from the fireside chat can be found below.
McHenry: ... You need a regulated stable coin regime at the federal level. And you need to clarify: What is a digital asset? Much of what pretends to be a digital asset is actually fraudulent activity in the current state of play because we have not defined what is a digital asset.
…we have the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the current chair of the SEC playing games with this industry rather than providing clarity. Trying to get headlines by suing Kim Kardashian [rather] than providing regulatory clarity over a trillion-dollar asset class... Talk about playing in triviality and really playing stupid games to get attention - that's what the SEC has done rather than provide any level of clarity... so Congress has to step in.
Flood: What are the prospects of getting something from the Senate? How do you see that on market structure?
McHenry: Market structure and Stablecoin are two open questions for lame duck... The election outcome will dictate much of what happens in lame duck. The National Defense Authorization Act and government funding are the two major pieces of legislation we have to wrestle with between now and the end of the year, and those two must-pass bills have traditionally taken a larger policy set with them... The Senate is unlikely to take an independent Senate banking bill across the Senate floor…
You have Members that want to offer amendments... to cut other people up or to go make a point, not to make policy. So, what happens is we have to build consensus for our products, and then those consensus items can make their way into law as a part of a larger package.
Flood: A few months later, I was talking to Tom Cole, and he mentioned that you resisting that power was not done for the moment but was done for generations in the future...
McHenry: These systems develop over time... the power of the speakership developed over time... had I taken action, I would have eroded the power of the speakership in a way that would be detrimental to the insulation and the separation of powers... between the Congress and the Presidency...
Once you obtain the power, you think, "Well, but I'm different," which is a huge mistake. You have to think of yourself in context of over two hundred years of history behind you and hopefully hundreds of years ahead of you. Your actions can have a detrimental effect generations down the line sitting in a role like that. As a Committee Chair, I can say any number of stupid things. But as Speaker of the House - you must - you have an obligation to operate differently… in that wider context, and I felt that.