Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chair, more than 20 percent of Americans have owned or traded cryptocurrency. Despite this, the U.S. still lacks a clear regulatory structure for digital assets which is hurting American competitiveness and incentivizing some companies, unfortunately, to move overseas. While there may be disagreement about how to best establish the appropriate market regulatory structure, there is broad bipartisan agreement for preventing criminals from using cryptocurrencies for illicit purposes, such as money laundering, terrorist financing, and sanctioned evasion. My amendment would provide clarity and conformity to how the Bank Secrecy Act and regulations safeguarding our financial system from criminals are applied to digital assets. The base bill already calls for the Bank Secrecy Act to apply to digital assets; however, by amending the BSA directly and explicitly expanding the definition of financial institution in the BSA to cover digital asset entities, we are providing certainty to the regulators and the Department of Treasury in their authorities to protect our financial system. Additionally, the amendment would also require a study to assess the risk posed by centralized intermediaries based in jurisdictions that lack robust anti-money laundering enforcement.…”