U.S. House Stablecoin Bill Goes Live in Flurry of Crypto Activity on Capitol Hill
The House version of stablecoin legislation was released publicly as another bill on crypto clarity was reintroduced and the Senate weighed its crypto IRS effort.
The U.S. Congress' opening priority for the crypto industry is to quickly finish a stablecoin oversight bill, and the House of Representatives has released the text of its version on Wednesday, following in the heels of a recent committee approval of its Senate counterpart.
The House version, introduced by Rep. Bryan Steil, who leads the House Financial Services Committee's crypto panel, and Rep. French Hill, the Republican chair of the overall committee, governs the way companies can issue dollar-denominated digital tokens.
The new version will "close the gap" between the House efforts and the Senate version of the bill, Steil said during a conference appearance Wednesday.
The Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy (STABLE Act) "is a strong continuation of our work on digital assets in the last Congress," Hill said in a statement.
The Senate Banking Committee had already advanced its own version of the legislation with a strong bipartisan vote, so it moves on now to consideration on the Senate floor. Rep. Tom Emmer, the House majority whip who has been among Congress' top crypto advocates for years, said the two bills have "some minor differences that I'm sure can be ironed out."
Read more: Trump-Tied World Liberty Financial Pitches Its Stablecoin in Washington With Don Jr.
Also on Wednesday, Emmer reintroduced his Securities Clarity Act, which seeks to define how a crypto asset might fall within the securities law framework. Emmer introduced the bill, which was part of last year's Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT 21), alongside Democratic Representative Darren Soto.
Emmer, Steil and many other lawmakers involved in crypto efforts on Capitol Hill all appeared on Wednesday at the DC Blockchain Summit, a crypto policy event hosted by the Digital Chamber. Most of them shared hopes that the stablecoin effort would be completed by August.
As the conference wrapped up, the Senate prepared to vote for a second time on a Congressional Review Act resolution overturning the IRS' 2024 regulation governing decentralized finance (DeFi) brokers. The Senate and House have both previously passed the resolution, which U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign, but the Senate must vote on it again due to a procedural rule requiring the House to vote first on tax-related issues.
