This week, Kentucky Republican Representative Andy Barr began distributing a pamphlet that describes what his policy priorities would be as House Financial Services Committee Chair. In it, Barr promises to advance legislation which would “foster innovation in fintech and digital assets” within his first 100 days.
The House Financial Services Committee, alongside the House Agriculture Committee, would likely workshop federal crypto legislation before it went to a vote in the chamber. The Chair of the committee decides its priorities and helps coordinate members’ input, though its Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Inclusion is responsible for the legislative details. The race for Chair is seen as a tight competition between Barr and Arkansas Republican Representative French Hill, who currently chairs the subcommittee, though Michigan Rep. Bill Huizenga and Oklahoma Rep. Frank Lucas are also running for the position.
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Barr’s pamphlet, however, implies that crypto would not be Barr’s top priority, couching it within a wide-ranging list of objectives that also include national security and small business issues. Whereas Rep. Hill, made eliminating the “political targeting” of digital assets and firearms industries by bank regulators the first item on a document outlining his political priorities released last week, Barr lists “holding federal regulators accountable” third, and at that, focuses on traditional finance issues like reform of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and ensuring “woke politics stay out of our financial system” via eliminating environmental, social, and governance requirements.
Barr’s pamphlet also highlights his record of opposing the creation of a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC) on the grounds that it could be used as a tool of government surveillance on American’s finances. China’s implementation of a digital yuan currency has been broadly criticized as a mechanism through which the Chinese government monitors its citizens’ transactions. Barr “has stated that competition with China’s digital yuan and protecting the dollar’s dominance as the world’s reserve currency is paramount, but that a regulatory framework for dollar-backed stable coins is preferable to a CBDC,” the pamphlet says.
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Representatives for crypto in policy discussions who have spoken with Unchained describe both candidates as supportive of the industry. However, they say Hill is more knowledgeable about the technology and connected to industry leaders than Barr, who is more focused on broad free market principles and light regulation that he believes support innovation in both traditional finance and digital assets. That said, it is Barr who introduced the Fair Access to Banking Act in April, which forbids banks from unbanking industries which operate legally, like crypto.
Whoever is chosen will replace sitting Chair Patrick McHenry, who is retiring at the end of this session and has been a vocal advocate of the crypto industry throughout his time in leadership. Lobbyists tell Unchained that the Republican Steering Committee, which will decide committee leadership, is expected to make its deliberations via a closed-door meeting in early December.
Barr’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
