Who?
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) — Member, Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs and Commerce Committees
LISTEN: Laslo & Lummis
Ask a Pol asks:
Heard you have a shiny new stablecoin measure. Why’d you and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) release your draft now knowing that your House counterparts are still negotiating? Kind of so they know where you're at?
Key Lummis:
“Exactly. It just seems that this has been hanging fire for a long time, and it’s always — it has almost seemed like, ‘Well, we wanna see what you're doing first’, and, ‘Well, we want to see what you're thinking first,’ and, ‘Well, when we have something, we'll let you know’ — and it has been a little bit ping-pong ball-ish,” Sen. Lummis exclusively tells Ask a Pol.
“The whole point here is consumer protection. The. Whole. Point.”
“And so Sen. Gillibrand and I just decided, ‘Look, let's just show people what our draft looks like.’ And it gives the House that's still negotiating a chance to look at our ideas and see. We don't know how close they are to our ideas, and so, you know, it's just time for somebody to show their work product,” Lummis says.
Lummis v. Warren
Did you see earlier in the week Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent a letter to Treasury focused on money laundering and the illicit stuff…?
“That's a red herring,” Lummis replied. “She raises that issue as if it didn't happen with regard to any other asset. That somehow illicit finance is unique within the digital asset space. It's not. How do you get a handle on it if we don't regulate it? And so it is — I just couldn't be more diametrically opposed to someone's approach to this subject as I am to Sen. Warren's. You know, her goal is, ‘Oh, illicit finance, illicit finance — let's ban it.’ My goal is, ‘Yeah, there are bad actors out there. Let's regulate them.’ The whole point here is consumer protection. The. Whole. Point.”
Caught our ear:
“It's very important that we acknowledge and preserve the dual banking system —states and the Fed — and that we try to not expand the current powers of the Fed inadvertently,” Sen. Lummis tells us.
Thirsty.
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ICYMI — Ask a Pol’s exclusive w/ Rep. French Hill on House effort
Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), slightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Sen. Cynthia Lummis
SCENE: Sen. Lummis greets a longtime Senate attendant in the basement of the US Capitol before hopping an elevator to the 2nd floor so she can vote on the Senate floor.
Matt Laslo: “Heard you got a shiny new stablecoin measure?”
Cynthia Lummis: “Yeah, yeah! Come on.”
Lummis waves Laslo on her elevator while turning to attendant.
CL: “Hi!”
Man: “Nice to see you.”
CL: “Nice to see you.”
ML: “What um — have you heard any feedback yet from your House colleagues on it? Or it just dropped?”
CL: “Yeah, and so no, we haven't.”
ML: “But why’d you guys put out yours now knowing that they're still negotiating? Kind of so they know where you're at…?”
“It's very important that we acknowledge and preserve the dual banking system —states and the Fed — and that we try to not expand the current powers of the Fed inadvertently” — Sen. Cynthia Lummis
CL: “Exactly. It just seems that this has been hanging fire for a long time, and it’s always — it has almost seemed like, ‘Well, we wanna see what you're doing first’, and, ‘Well, we want to see what you're thinking first,’ and, ‘Well, when we have something, we'll let you know’ — and it has been a little bit ping-pong ball-ish. And so Sen. [Kirsten] Gillibrand (D-NY) and I just decided, ‘Look, let's just show people what our draft looks like.’ And it gives the House that's still negotiating a chance to look at our ideas and see. We don't know how close they are to our ideas, and so, you know, it's just time for somebody to show their work product.”
ML: “Yeah? And how important to you is the Federal Reserve's role versus the state-level role? Was that a major…?”
CL: “Well, it's very important that we acknowledge and preserve the dual banking system — states and the Fed — and that we try to not expand the current powers of the Fed inadvertently, because they've proven themselves willing to entertain expansions of their authority. And so we're trying to recognize that and constrain them to their current powers.”
ICYMI — Sen. Gillibrand: “if the feedback comes before the House finishes their work, we can inform their work.”
Matt Laslo: “And did you see earlier in the week Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent a letter to Treasury focused on money laundering and the illicit stuff — does your bill…”
Cynthia Lummis: “That's a red herring. She's so focused — you know, she raises that issue as if it didn't happen with regard to any other asset. That somehow illicit finance is unique within the digital asset space. It's not. How do you get a handle on it if we don't regulate it? And so it is — I just couldn't be more diametrically opposed to someone's approach to this subject as I am to Sen. Warren's. You know, her goal is, ‘Oh, illicit finance, illicit finance — let's ban it.’ My goal is, ‘Yeah, there are bad actors out there. Let's regulate them.’ The whole point here is consumer protection. The. Whole. Point.”
ML: “And you're not big into regulations, this is interesting hearing you say this…”
CL: “I know.”
ML: “…but you think, set it up, get inside the fold and then you have more control over it?”
CL: “Yeah. We want to. And we've really looked for the sweet spot — threading the needle between protecting innovation and protecting consumers from fraud — and we think we're pretty close. So we're laying our work product out there and saying, ‘Here's where we think the sweet spot is between protecting innovation and protecting consumers,’ if you — you know, take a shot at it. Fix it. Make it better if you want. But for crying out loud, at least look at it.”
Sen. Lummis laughs.
ML: “As always, preciate ya, ma'am.”
CL: “Thank you.”
ML: “Have a good one.”
Matt Laslo’s a veteran congressional correspondent, new media prof. & founder of Ask a Pol — a new, people-powered press corps.
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Sen. Lummis dismisses Elizabeth Warren's latest crypto warning to Treasury as "a red herring"