Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the GENIUS Act.

From the beginning, I have said that Congress needs to tackle stablecoin legislation, but we cannot pretend that this is happening in a vacuum. We are creating a framework for stablecoins while the President, his family, and members of his administration are personally invested in this market and directly profiting from it.

Mr. Speaker, 3 days before taking office, President Trump launched his own memecoin. When the coin's value collapsed, his insiders cashed out. Everyday investors were left holding the bag. It is estimated that they lost over $2 billion while the Trump circle walked away with more than $350 million.

Now, his family firm, World Liberty Financial, has launched its own stablecoin, once again netting the President's family tens of millions of dollars.

The administration is rolling back enforcement and reshaping policy to give these business interests a leg up.

These are such clear-cut conflicts of interest, yet this bill does nothing to address them. It doesn't bar the President or Cabinet officials from holding financial stakes in stablecoin issuers. It doesn't address the foreign investors piling into these ventures. It doesn't even try to draw a line between public office and private banks.

This isn't a framework for innovation. It is a framework for more corruption.

If we are serious about protecting consumers and about protecting our markets, we have to start with ethics. This bill fails that basic test.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''

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