Who?
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Ask a Pol asked:
Have you dropped your new stablecoin measure with Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) yet?
House holdup:
“No. We're waiting for the House to maybe reach consensus first,” Gillibrand exclusively tells Ask a Pol. “So we're hoping that [Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine] Waters (D-CA) and [Financial Services Chair Patrick] McHenry (R-NC) continue to meet and hash out their very small differences.”
Fed’s role?
“I think, the last issue to be decided is, what kind of oversight does the Fed have overall,” Gillibrand says. “For state pathways, specifically, so, like, New York State has a Department of Financial Services, Wyoming has their own version of DFS and those organizations have done a great job in issuing bit licenses and being able to participate in the space. So we want them to continue to have a role, but the Fed would like to have some level of oversight.”
Key Gillibrand:
“We're trying to craft exactly what that level should be, and we think we have some good, common sense language to resolve it,” Gillibrand tells Ask a Pol. “But we want the House to get a little further along, but Cynthia [Lummis] and I are all done. We have a bill.”
LISTEN: Laslo & Gillibrand
Matt Laslo covers tech politics for WIRED, lectures on technology’s impact on government at Johns Hopkins and is the founder of Ask a Pol — a new people-powered press corps. @MattLaslo / @AskaPol_crypto
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Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), slightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
SCENE: The doors to a tram underneath the US Capitol opens, Gillibrand and an aide are walking through the basement on the way to the Senate floor. Matt Laslo greets them and proceeds to ride up the elevator with Gillibrand (and some visitors she knows). Their conversation continues until she enters the Senate chamber to cast a vote.
Matt Laslo: “How are y'all?”
Kirsten Gillibrand: “Hey.”
ML: “Have you dropped your stablecoin measure yet?”
KG: “No. We're waiting for the House to maybe reach consensus first. So we're hoping that [Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine] Waters (D-CA) and [Financial Services Chair Patrick] McHenry (R-NC) continue to meet and hash out their very small differences. There's very little left they need to hash out.”
Aide: “We’ve been working hard on some (inaudible) thoughts on the issue that can be acceptable to all.”
ML: “Yeah — what are the key provisions in this?”
KG: “It's just a question of what — I think, the last issue to be decided is, what kind of oversight does the Fed have overall.”
ML: “Yeah?”
KG: “For state pathways, specifically, so, like, New York State has a Department of Financial Services, Wyoming has their own version of DFS and those organizations have done a great job in issuing bit licenses and being able to participate in the space. So we want them to continue to have a role, but…”
Gillibrand greets folks she knows as we’re entering the elevator.
KG: “…but the Fed would like to have some level of oversight. And so we're trying to craft exactly what that level should be, and we think we have some good, common sense language to resolve it. But we want the House to get a little further along, but [Sen.] Cynthia [Lummis] (R-WY) and I are all done. We have a bill.”
Laslo jokingly motions as if patting a child on the head.
ML: “Poor little House colleagues.”
KG: “Well, no, no, no.”
ML: “I know.”
KG: “They're important. They set the agenda. We can't get anything done if they're not willing to have it.”
ML: “Right? Yeah.”
KG: “So, yeah. But Cynthia and I are already resolved where we believe that sweet spot is, but we're trying to be helpful in guiding them and participating.”
ML: “Yeah.”
KG: “And I think they would prefer to go first, so…”
Her aide coordinates as Gillibrand heads in to vote.
ML: “I’ll be watchin. Preciate ya!”
Gillibrand says new stablecoin bill w/ Lummis ready, just "waiting for the House"