Andy Barr Warns That Without GENIUS Act, U.S. Could Turn Into Cryptocurrency 'Surveillance State'

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In House floor remarks on Thursday, Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY) spoke about the GENIUS Act.

Transcript

00:00Mr. Speaker, thank you.

00:01I rise today in strong support of the passage of the Genius Act, and I want to thank Chairman

00:07Hill for his extraordinary leadership, not just in this Congress, but for a long time

00:14advocating for this moment.

00:17He deserves a tremendous amount of credit for persevering and working and marshalling

00:23bipartisan, bicameral support, and I want to thank him for his terrific leadership.

00:28I want to thank the gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. Stile, for being a subject matter expert

00:34and working in a bipartisan way to build a bipartisan coalition for this moment.

00:40And there's been a lot, Mr. Speaker, made in this term of Congress about the one big, beautiful

00:45bill.

00:46And it's a historic piece of legislation, no doubt, and it's going to supercharge our

00:49economy.

00:50It's jet fuel for our economy.

00:51It's tax cuts, the biggest tax cuts we've ever seen in this country's history.

00:55But I would argue, with all respect, that arguably the most important, most transformational piece

01:03of legislation in this Congress are these bills we're talking about here today.

01:07The Genius Act and the Clarity Act.

01:10It is paramount that we send this historic piece of legislation, the Genius Act, to the

01:14President's desk because this bill is the first of its kind in creating a regulatory framework

01:20for the future, for stablecoin issuance in the United States to revolutionize finance

01:25and payments in this country and around the globe.

01:28Not only will this cement us, the United States, for decades to come as leaders and innovators

01:33in the digital asset space, but it will protect, importantly, protect the U.S. dollar's dominance

01:39and increase demand in our Treasury market.

01:42In the Genius Act, stablecoins become pegged to the U.S. dollar and backed by high-quality

01:47liquid assets.

01:48So in stark contrast to what my friend, the gentleman from Illinois, was arguing, this

01:53actually prevents these other so-called stablecoins from actually thriving in the marketplace.

02:00That you're going to have stablecoins that actually are stable.

02:02That's why we need the bill.

02:05The gentleman is actually making the argument for us.

02:08The gentleman from Illinois, he's making the argument for why he should support the Genius

02:13Act because of non-stable stablecoins that are out there.

02:18Those products will lose ground in the marketplace after we pass the Genius Act.

02:24It will ensure that consumers are protected while reaping the benefits of blockchain technology.

02:29The Genius Act will allow for scalability to occur in the stablecoin marketplace, ensuring

02:33American consumers and businesses have access to this innovative product.

02:36Both banks and non-banks can issue stablecoins under the Genius Act, bringing together the

02:41best actors in both the traditional finance space and the new era of digital finance.

02:47The Genius Act provides that all appropriately regulated banks, including the U.S. operations

02:53of foreign banking organizations, which are supervised by the Federal Reserve, are treated equally to

02:58their U.S. peers.

03:00This is particularly important with respect to the issuance, reserve, and custody services,

03:04and bank capital requirements irrespective of whether they are deposit-insured since the

03:09Act prohibits stablecoins from being covered by FDI insurance.

03:13A robust, well-regulated stablecoin market eliminates any justification for a government-controlled

03:20central bank digital currency, or CBDC, which jeopardizes Americans' access to freedom, privacy,

03:25and apolitical private capital.

03:27And this is an important point for all of my colleagues on my side of the aisle, who share

03:32my concern and opposition to a CBDC.

03:37If you want to put a dagger in the heart of this crazy surveillance state idea of a central

03:43bank digital currency, pass this bill.

03:46Vote for this bill.

03:47Vote for the Genius Act, which will eliminate all arguments for a CBDC.

03:53So, with the Genius Act, we will increase the speed and decrease the cost of payments.

03:58We will decrease and eliminate friction from our payment system.

04:02If all Americans see housing their deposits via a CBDC at the Federal Reserve as a risk-free

04:07proposition, they would be incentivized to pull their money out of—

04:10Gentlemen, this time's expired.

04:11I'll yield to gentlemen 15 more seconds.

04:13Just to conclude, we want to avoid eroding the deposit base and starving the private sector

04:19of conventional bank financing.

04:22So the Genius Act will not erode the deposit base, and it will allow banks to issue and

04:27custody stablecoins and participate in this emerging crypto economy.

04:32Cementing the dollar as the world is our currency, protecting consumers from the deposit base, and

04:36supercharging the treasury market.

04:38I yield back.

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