United States Congressman Bryan Steep (R-WI), a vocal advocate of the digital asset space and “innovation,” has been selected to chair the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence in the 119th Congress.
According to a statement released by the Financial Services Committee and its chairman, French Hill (R-AR), on Jan. 9, will Rep. Steil to lead the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, FinTech and AI in its mission to “create a digital asset regulatory framework that will protect investors and consumers while keeping innovation in America.”
Another goal of Steil’s tenure will be to “ensure agencies are focused on their core statutory missions and not political agendas as we’ve seen from many of the Biden-Harris agency leaders,” Hill added.
In recent years, the subcommittee has held a number of significant hearings focusing on digital assets and has been instrumental in advancing legislative work in the area.
The most notable bills to emerge from the subcommittee are Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), which approved a full vote in the US House of Representatives in May, and Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act of 2023which passed the committee stage last July.
The former aims to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets in the US and clarify the responsibilities of the country’s two main regulators in the financial sector, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); meanwhile, the latter would create a regulatory framework for issuing and monitoring payments stablecoins.
Rope. Steil voted for both FIT21 and the stablecoin bill as a member of the House Financial Services Committee, where he is currently serving his fourth term. He has also previously been a member of the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, FinTech and AI.
Significantly – and in line with many of his Republican colleagues – Steil has been a vocal advocate of the digital asset space and critic of the current regulatory approach to the space in the US, especially that by outgoing SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.
Industry organization “Stand with Crypto” gave Steil an “A” grade for its stance on digital assets, cites the bills he voted for as well as a number of his previous comments, including one in September 2024 post on X states that “digital access rules are important to ensure development in the United States and not squeeze opportunities abroad.”
But while he is a vocal supporter of the digital asset space, Steil has sorry too the exaggerated congressional broadcast debates around the sector. During a May 2024 meeting of the Financial Services Committee’s Capital Markets Subcommittee, Steil opened his question-and-answer session by complaining that the subcommittee “might as well be renamed the Digital Assets Subcommittee rather than Capital Markets.”
In his statementstated Steil that “innovation in the financial services sector presents an exciting opportunity for consumers and entrepreneurs as technologies such as financial apps, digital assets and machine learning revolutionize our economy.”
He added that he looked forward “to building on the important work that this subcommittee completed under Chairman Hill as we continue to provide the road rules to move our economy into the future.”
Rep. Hill, who previously chaired the Digital Assets Subcommittee and was voted by Republicans to lead the full House Financial Services Committee in December, praised Steil as a “leader during his time in Congress, both on our committee and as chairman of the House Administration Committee.”
“I am pleased that he will take over my role as Chairman of the Digital Assets Subcommittee for the 119th Congress and be a leader in continuing our work to create a digital asset regulatory framework that will protect consumers and investors while The US is a leader in innovation in the digital asset ecosystem,” added Hill.
New regular committee chairman
For his part, Rep. Hill too a known crypto devoteeand his appointment to chair the House’s full Committee on Financial Services confirmed its latest revolving door of “pro-crypto” leadership as he replaced singing colleague Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), who announced in early December that he would resign from Congress.
During his tenure, Hill was instrumental in shaping US policy on emerging fintech, championing “clear” regulatory frameworks that foster innovation. Specifically, he was a core supporter of FIT Act and that Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act.
Hill is also a noted critic of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) and helped pass it CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act on May 23 invoice still faces a vote in the Senate, but if passed, would prevent the issuance of a CBDC without the express authorization of Congress.
In a debate before the vote on the bill, Hill invoked China’s digital yuan as a cautionary tale about the dangers of government surveillance and the potential for government abuse of a CBDC, saying, “We live in a world where government can abuse the tools it has.”
In September he opened one hearing titled “Decoding DeFi: Breaking Down the Future of Decentralized Finance” by repeats the Republican “pro-innovation”—read “pro-crypto”— approach to financial regulation.
“As we consider how blockchains can be used in finance, we must continue to expand our knowledge of the potential costs and benefits of DeFi,” said Hill. “Replacing intermediaries for autonomous, self-executing code, decentralized finance can change the way financial markets and transactions are currently structured and governed.”
With Hill chairing the House Financial Services Committee and Steil now chairing the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, FinTech and AI, Trump 2.0 crypto-supporting stance looks set to receive significant legislative support in 2025.
Watch: Reggie Middleton on DeFi, Booms and Crypto Regulation
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