Pat McHenry

Mr. Marcus gave me two promises in our conversation yesterday, both of which he knows they will not comply with.

I want to keep this simple. Mr. Marcus, I have read your White Paper. I understand the nature of digital currency and digital technology. What is a Libra?

Some politicians want us to live in a permission-based society, where you need to come to the government, and ask for its blessing before you can begin to even think about innovating.

The reality is whether Facebook is involved or not, change is here.

Just because we may not fully understand a new technology proposal does not mean we should immediately call for its prohibition.

We are here to go beyond the headlines. We are here to sift through the speculation and the hearsay.

So is it your view that the development internally at Facebook is for you to be a competitor to Alipay and to WePay?

People call this the 'Libra.' It is not the Libra. If it finally happens, nobody is going to call it a 'Libra.' They are going to call it a 'Zuck Buck.' This is Zuckerberg's baby.

America's power comes from the power of the dollar more, I think, than the power of our military.

If you are seeking to be a competitor to Alipay and to WePay, why are you doing this in Switzerland and why are you using a basket of currencies?

The association will still have the ability to set the rules when it comes to anti-money-laundering programs.

There is tension between the notion of a decentralized currency, or something decentralized, and ultimately privacy.

How do you comply with regulations?

Congress needs to be helping everyday investors. That is our clear motivation.

I think we can build great consensus through committees like this and the AI Task Force, and that can help drive good bipartisan legislation through the process.

We need to build a broader consensus on this committee and across jurisdictions about how we lean into this new era of technology.

Even if there is only one woman or one African American on the board, if we actually have a chairperson who goes around the table and elicits perspectives, that one voice can be powerful.

Right. So, recruiting based off of race and ethnicity alone is not sufficient for empowered boards.

But you also get into this really--more of the behavioral piece, which is, you have a diverse board on paper, but they are not functionally diverse, right?

Progress does not mean we have arrived. Progress does not mean we have completed the job.

Women and minorities only hold approximately 38 percent of board positions at America's top 100 companies.

Research shows that when you have a more diverse array of inputs, you actually get better outcomes.

Pursuing more diverse boards is the right thing to do as a matter of economic interest for these institutions.

This is a nonpartisan approach. I have everyone from myself and Josh Gottheimer in this committee...

It is important that we maintain core investor protections while at the same time figuring out a principled way to enable American markets to flourish.