Crypto-friendly Arkansas Representative French Hill, currently chairing a digital asset subcommittee, will take over leadership of the House Financial Services Committee in next year’s United States Congress.
“I am humbled that my colleagues have placed their trust in me to lead the House Financial Services Committee as their next Chairman,” Hill said in a Dec. 12 statement .
He added that he looked forward to working “in tandem with President Trump and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott to bring common-sense economic policies that will produce a new era of American prosperity.”
Like the House Finance Committee, the Senate Banking Committee is another crucial Congressional group for crypto and blockchain policy.
In July, Scott said he would support pro-crypto legislation and floated the idea of creating a subcommittee focused on crypto if he were to chair the banking committee.
Hill beat peer Republican challengers Andy Barr, Frank Lucas and Bill Huizenga in a decision by the party’s steering committee and will take the gavel from current Chair Patrick McHenry on Jan. 3, 2025, when the 119th Congress begins.
House Republicans must ratify Hill’s selection in a full conference vote before it is official.
The House Financial Services Committee oversees and shapes policy for the entire financial services industry along with overseeing crucial regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury.
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Hill formerly chaired the committee’s digital assets subcommittee and now takes over from the staunchly pro-crypto McHenry, who announced in December 2023 that he wouldn’t seek reelection after 20 years in office.
In October, Hill said he was optimistic that a crypto regulation bill and a stablecoin bill could move forward in Congress before the end of this year. If that doesn’t happen, he and Scott now hold more sway to push them through in 2025.
The House passed the crypto regulatory-defining Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) in May, but it stalled in the Senate banking committee, which Scott will now chair.
A House-originated stablecoin regulatory framework bill has also stalled after passing the Financial Services Committee in July 2023.
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