The House Agriculture Committee advanced the Financial Innovation Technology for the 21st Century Act, a day after the House Financial Services Committee did. After beginning debate and voting on amendments to the bill, which would create a federal regulatory framework for crypto in the U.S., the House Agriculture Committee referred the bill to the full House of Representatives by a voice vote. Committee Chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) noted that Congress has been working on crypto legislation for years, saying, We learned that current federal laws and regulations provide few rules of the road for those who want to engage with these emerging technologies, leading to complicated enforcement actions by regulators and creating further confusion in the industry and market.
The House Agriculture Committee vote followed a daylong markup session in the House Financial Services Committee, which voted to advance the bill Wednesday night alongside a number of other crypto-focused pieces of legislation. The House Financial Services Committee also met again Thursday to debate stablecoin legislation. However, the House Agriculture Committee markup sharply contrasted with the Financial Services Committee, with both Democrats and Republicans proposing amendments and the hearing ending well before that of the Financial Services Committee. After the end of the session, Thompson joked, Did we do better than Financial Services?