- Crypto-friendly Rep. Tom Emmer has filed a nomination for the next House Speaker.
- While some are hopeful about this win, others say that it’s not really sure.
- There are other crypto-related bills pending in the house along with some related to the Israel-Hamas war.
While the governments are getting more considerate of crypto, finding politicians’ support is still not easy. Especially right now when the SEC chair seems to be dead against digital assets and companies dealing in it. But when that happens, everyone gets their hopes high. That’s exactly what happened recently when US Rep. Tom Emmer nominated himself for the next House Speaker.
What Makes It A News For Crypto Space?
The House Majority Whip, Tom Emmer is known for his staunch support of cryptocurrency. In fact, he has been quite critical of regulators because of their hostile disposition towards the technology. In the past years, he introduced two different bills in the same context. The first one was to create a new definition for tokens that would be approved by the government. The second one was to prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC permanently.
Moreover, he has been supportive of a bill that works towards creating a comprehensive framework for crypto. At the same time, he slammed the SEC chairman Gary Gensler for unnecessarily harassing the crypto entities. He filed his nomination along with eight other candidates. They include Byron Donalds, Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and R-Minn. Reportedly, the erstwhile House Speaker Kevin McCarthy nominated Emmer.
He emphasized that the Minnesota Republic has a positive chance of getting elected this week. Notably, McCarthy was ousted this month due to a power struggle with other lawmakers. Currently, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C. is the interim House Speaker. Some representatives reacted sharply to this temporary filling of the position. They said that this was a waste of time which could have been used in framing crypto bills.
Two of those bills, led by McHenry, were greenlighted from the House Financial Services Committee. However, they are stalled due to the absence of a House Speaker. Donalds and Sessions were the other candidates who supported crypto innovation. In July, Donalds shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) in support of decentralization. He said that many entrepreneurs want to use blockchain in the US. Yet, their endeavors are thwarted by a hostile SEC and congressional inaction.
What Could Be The Probable Outcome?
Reacting to the news, some other notable personalities in the industry also shared their views. Ron Hammond, director of government relations at the Blockchain Association said that Emmer is the frontrunner. Still, there’s no surety that will be chosen, he stated. In the past weeks, some other lawmakers tried to contest for House Speaker but failed to muster votes. Their names include R-La, R-Ohio, Rep. Jim Jordan, and Steve Scalise.
As per the reports, the vote is scheduled for Tuesday and the House will meet on Monday. In addition, some hearings of the House Financial Services Committee are scheduled this week. There’s one on Wednesday from the digital asset subcommittee.
It’s titled “Modernizing Financial Services Through Innovation and Competition.” Other significant hearings include Hamas and sanctions evasions and another on Iran’s access to funds.
The context of these hearings is not known yet. However, some lawmakers, including D-Mass and Sen. Elizabeth Warren said that they’d focus on Hamas. Probably, they’ll discuss how Hamas raised millions of dollars through crypto.
