The News
The House GOP whip is warning conservative holdouts that their public rebellion on Wednesday — which forced the chamber into its longest vote in history — may not “100% guarantee” a clean victory on their cryptocurrency priorities.
Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota said he “was, frankly, flattered” when Freedom Caucus members seized on his legislation banning a Central Bank Digital Currency to hold up two other digital assets bills and a defense spending bill for hours on end.
President Donald Trump got involved to help corral the conservatives, but the deal they struck ultimately fell apart amid concerns over isolating Democrats to be replaced with a promise from leadership to attach Emmer’s measure to another must-pass defense bill later in the year.
“It is imperative that this becomes law,” Emmer told Semafor from his Capitol office on Thursday.
Yet Emmer can’t exactly guarantee that outcome, and he’s setting expectations now that the Senate might not be able to keep the digital currency ban in the final version of the defense bill later this year (or get another of the crypto bills, a broader regulatory overhaul, across the finish line).
“My understanding is” that senators will “work hard” to accomplish both, Emmer said. “But you can’t give anybody a 100% guarantee when human beings are involved and you’re talking about the legislative process.”
He added that he was sure Trump would continue pressuring members to coalesce behind them the same way he did this week. The president has made an estimated $1 billion from various affiliated digital assets over the course of his second term.
“He’s going to keep leaning in to help people get to where they need to be, so that he can honor the campaign promise he made to make the US the crypto capital of the world,” Emmer said of Trump.
The House is slated to vote on all three previously stalled crypto bills — the CBDC ban, the regulatory overhaul, and stablecoin legislation — later Thursday. The stablecoin legislation will go to Trump’s desk for his signature, and the other two measures will head to the Senate.
In this article:
The View From Tom Emmer
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Eleanor Mueller: Did you foresee the Freedom Caucus rebellion that happened over your Central Bank Digital Currency legislation earlier this week?
Rep. Tom Emmer: I was, frankly, flattered. It is imperative that this becomes law — because even though the president has made it illegal, they’re still working on it. The Fed’s still working on it; you’ve got different universities still working on it. We should never be like the Chinese Communist Party. The Digital Yuan is the most evil and dastardly authoritarian regime control tool that you can have. We’re better than that, and we should never want that.
I was surprised when they took it to the next level and said, ‘We need a 100% guarantee that this will be law.’ That was the discussion yesterday, because one group had an idea of how to do it; another group had a different idea of how to do it. But you could not give anyone a 100% guarantee, because once you pass it over to the Senate, they’ll need to have seven Democrats join.
After all of that discussion, everybody settled on putting the Emmer Anti-CBDC Surveillance Act on the National Defense Authorization Act. So that’s the best opportunity.
Initially, it will probably have to be a Republican-only vote to start with. But as soon as we hit that magic number of 218, or whatever the strength of the House is, I think you’ll see Democrats who support both the NDAA and the Anti-Surveillance Act start to get on board.
What assurances did the Senate give this week, both in terms of enacting the CBDC ban and a regulatory overhaul?
It was represented to me that Tim Scott is absolutely committed to fighting for it. [John] Barrasso is committed to fighting for it. [John] Thune is absolutely going to give it serious consideration as to how they might help.
And then it’s our chair, who has been very gracious. I mean, Mike Rogers did not have to say yes to this. He had a bill that came out of committee the NDAA with two dissenting votes, right? He did not have to consent to this. He has. And now, when he is working with his counterpart on the other side, Roger Wicker, my understanding is they are going to work hard to keep it in.
But you can’t give anybody a 100% guarantee when human beings are involved and you’re talking about the legislative process.
What does the new timeline for passing both bills look like, given that the NDAA will likely pass in December and the Senate says they want to pass their regulatory overhaul this fall?
The Senate will probably take till December, but it’ll be passed out of the House in early September. Whether that will appease members, we’ll see — but that’s the agreement.
Is it your impression so far that Trump will be as involved on market structure legislation as he was on the stablecoin bill?
Yeah. The president wants all three of these. He wants GENIUS now, because it’s ready: ‘Let’s put a win on the board.’
One thing I saw yesterday — and this is not to denigrate anyone’s principles, core values, etc. — but you’ve got people who have worked on this for years, and you’ve got other people that are just like being introduced to it, and they both are acting as though they’re the same experience. So that’s a challenge — but it’s overcome, because the president makes it very clear.
What was his message last night?
His message was, ‘You know what’s even better? A win. Let’s get a win.’
Did Warren Davidson play a big role in bringing around the Freedom Caucus?
Yeah. Warren was heavily involved in the discussions yesterday, and I know he’s talked to the president directly about this. So yeah, Warren has a big part to play.
Notable
- The previous record for longest House vote in history was set just two weeks ago, during debate on Trump’s tax and spending cuts megabill, as Axios noted.