One of crypto’s most prominent advocates in Congress, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), has big plans for the industry should Republicans gain control of all branches of federal government in November.
However, he also appears convinced that cryptocurrency regulation is coming to the United States regardless of how the election shakes out.
“Regardless of the outcome, I expect you to see digital asset legislation start to move in both bodies,” Emmer told Decrypt at the Messar Mainnet conference in New York this week. “I think it is ‘when,’ not ‘if,’ regardless of who’s in charge.”
The third-highest-ranking House Republican ascribes much credit for this rosy outlook to recent changes in tune on both sides of the aisle in Congress. This spring, a substantial number of Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, joined Republicans to vote to overturn an anti-crypto banking rule. Days later, 71 Democrats including Nancy Pelosi voted to pass FIT21, a key crypto market structure bill.
Just last week, Emmer’s most senior adversary on the House Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters (D-CA), told Punchbowl News that “crypto is inevitable.” Waters, for context, was a steadfast opponent of bills like FIT21 just months ago.
“That’s a momentous statement by Maxine,” Emmer said.
Why have so many Democrats changed their tune on crypto this year? Emmer thinks it comes down to electoral politics, and realizing that younger voters may be casting a ballot with crypto in mind.
“They saw that there’s this voting bloc, age 18 to 40, and [for] maybe one out of five of them… this is the issue they’re going to be voting on,” the congressman said.
While Emmer is now confident that crypto legislation is more or less inevitable, he maintains that Republican “trifecta” control of the House, the Senate, and the White House in 2025 would likely bring those laws into effect more swiftly than a Democratic-controlled government might.
If the Majority Whip was operating in such a dream scenario, he said he would prioritize three specific types of crypto-related bills for passage into law: a market structure framework like FIT21, his bill outlawing the creation of an American central bank digital currency (CBDC), and a bill to facilitate the creation of dollar-backed stablecoins anywhere in the world, so long as they meet certain criteria enforced by the U.S. Treasury Department.
Emmer thinks these laws, if enacted, would go a long way toward creating solid footing for American crypto firms and projects currently worried about regulatory uncertainty. The congressman balked, though, at the notion of going much further than such legislation.
“I have Republican colleagues in the Senate who [think] we’ve got to create a new regulatory department just to deal with crypto,” he said. “Be careful what you wish for. You do not want that.”
Edited by Andrew Hayward