Congressman Bryan Steil talks Clarity Act Outlook, Tokenization, & Congress Stock Trading Ban!

**Bryan Steil** (0:00)
I think that the language that the Senate produced is actually pretty good. There may be adjustments to that by some of our Democratic colleagues, but I don't want to let that get in the way of the broader progress that's needed by getting clarity through and across the line.

**Tony Edward** (0:19)
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**Amanda Wickroft** (1:51)
And I'm Amanda Wickroft.

**Tony Edward** (1:52)
And joining us is Congressman Bryan Steil, who's a Republican out of Wisconsin. He's also the chairman of the financial services subcommittee on digital assets, financial technology and artificial intelligence. Congressman Steil, great to see you. Great to have you back.

**Bryan Steil** (2:06)
Hey, Tony, Amanda, thanks for having me on.

**Tony Edward** (2:08)
Congressman, all eyes and ears are tuned into the Clarity Act. What can you tell us about the current status of this bill, the ethics piece and all the conversations that are happening? It's all good things. We're seeing progress, but what can you tell us where the status is?

**Bryan Steil** (2:22)
I'm in the general view, it's darkest before the dawn. I mean, some people are indicating it might die. I'm still optimistic that we get the deal done. We're down to a handful of topics that have been down-negotiated for well over a year. We have an ethics piece. We have to discuss interest rates and some of the DeFi language that's inside of Clarity. I was always in the view that we best served. We took the House Pass Clarity Bill and simply moved it to the Senate for an up or down vote. Of course, the Senate wants to put their print on this. That's okay.
But the key here is that we reach a resolution and ultimately get this across the line. Now that there's legislative text put down on paper by Republicans in the Senate, I think, and I'm hopeful, that that gives us an opportunity to finalize the negotiations that are needed to get this thing all the way through, signed into law. It's really unleashed the capital that's sitting on the sidelines in this space.

**Amanda Wickroft** (3:17)
Do you think the ethics agreement will be sufficient for the Democrats?

**Bryan Steil** (3:21)
I think at the end of the day, it will be. I know the Democrats would like to see all sorts of bells and whistles associated with that ethics language, but there might be tweaks off of the draft just provided on the Senate side. I think people broadly are open to looking at what those reforms are. I don't think anybody in the space wants bad actors in it and don't want politicians to be profiting off of inside information while they're in office. But I think that the language of the Senate produced is actually pretty good.
There may be adjustments to that by some of our Democratic colleagues, but I don't want to let that get in the way of the broader progress that's needed by getting clarity through it across the line.

**Tony Edward** (4:04)
On the other side of the coin, the banks seem to be still fighting on the stablecoin yield side of things. Do you anticipate that might be a big hurdle as well?