Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. PERRY. Mr. Chairman, I offer a simple but important amendment.

While the underlying legislation allows the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the authority to regulate digital asset spot markets, nothing in the bill should be construed as giving the CFTC power beyond digital assets.

We all have seen good intentions around here, and nothing is punished like good intentions, so let's make clear what the strike zone is for everybody. We are trying to define that strike zone.

This amendment adds a sense of Congress that nothing in this act or any amendment made by this act should be interpreted to authorize any entity to regulate any commodity other than a digital commodity on any spot market. That is it. That is the whole thing.

Again, this amendment simply aims to combat mission creep, if you want to call it that, somewhere outside the strike zone and makes clear that Congress' intent is to only address digital asset spot markets in this bill and no more. With this amendment, the courts won't have any questions, and Mr. Gensler can't say, ``Well, I am not sure they did this,'' or ``They surely must have meant that.''

No. We cannot allow these agencies to take more and more power in the absence of express congressional approval. We have already seen Mr. Gensler aggressively pursue litigation against the crypto industry, people trying to do it the right way.

While trying to rein him in, we ought to ensure the CFTC knows exactly what they can and cannot do because he is not going to be there forever. There is going to be some next person that comes along and says that Congress wasn't really sure.

We are sure, and that is what this amendment does.

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Mr. PERRY. Madam Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson).

Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota. Madam Chair, I commend the gentleman from Pennsylvania for his thoughtful and forward-looking amendment.

I think it is important that we set the record straight. This amendment would not, as some have alleged, strip the CFTC of all of its spot market regulatory authority. All of the antifraud and antimanipulation powers that they currently hold would remain in place. This sense of Congress simply makes it clear that, within FIT21, it does not provide the CFTC with grand new authorities over non-digital asset spot markets.

I think it is important we do that. There are clear and important differences between the traditional spot markets for commodities. Think about people buying and selling barrels of oil. That is not something everyday Americans are doing, but we do have everyday Americans engaged in the spot market for digital assets.

Also, with regard to digital asset commodities, we also have a number of intermediaries that would be interacting with these retail consumers. Some of those intermediaries would certainly hold the cash of consumers, either pending or after a trade. That is an important situation that we need to protect for that is not exactly like that in the traditional commodity markets--different marketplace, different threats, different set of tools.

As chair of the Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development Subcommittee, I want to make it clear that I support the gentleman's amendment. I do not want any part of FIT21 to change the CFTC's authority over non-digital asset commodities.

Madam Chair, I commend the gentleman for his work, and I urge a ``yes'' vote on the amendment.

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Mr. PERRY. Madam Chair, I yield the balance of my time of my time to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill).

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