Transcript: Rep. French Hill on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," July 13, 2025
MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Congressman French Hill. He is the chair of the House Financial Services Committee. Welcome back to the broadcast. Your ears must have been ringing with the two senators who started the program, because they were talking about grabbing some of those frozen Russian assets. You moved a bill and gave the president authority to actually seize them during the last administration, under the REPO Act. The U.S. has never before seized central bank assets from another country. Do you know if the Treasury Department is going to do so now?
REP. FRENCH HILL: Well, Margaret, it's good to be with you. Yes, I certainly worked very hard with former Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul and others to put that in our 2024 national security package during the Biden administration, because we wanted another arrow in the quiver for the president to not just seize those assets, but to convert them to the benefit of Ukraine. But we could never get consensus between the United States and Europe for doing that, despite a unanimous vote of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe supporting it. So I continued to urge President Biden to do that. We got the interest off those frozen assets to benefit Ukraine, but I think it's time for the president to convert those seized assets to a trust account for the benefit of Ukraine. I'm glad to hear both Senators Blumenthal and Graham support that idea. It's time to do it, and I've encouraged Secretary Bessent that this should be a priority for President Trump.
MARGARET BRENNAN: On another topic, because you have some oversight in the financial space, I want to ask you about comments made in regard to Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The president says the economy is in good shape, but he still complains about the head of the central bank, says he's doing a terrible job because he's not lowering interest rates. On another network today, the president's top economic adviser said the White House is looking into whether the president has the authority to fire Chair Powell. Do you believe the president has the power and authority to fire the Fed president?
REP. HILL: You know, Margaret, I don't, and I believe President Trump has spoken about this several times over the past few years, including recently. Mr. Powell's governorship, his chairmanship, is up next spring. The president has vacancies coming up on the Fed board, where he could name another governor. But look, just because Congress created the Fed and that we believe that it should be independent in the setting of monetary policy, it doesn't mean that it's immune from criticism. And every president since World War Two has had choice words for the Fed chair when they've not been in sync with the direction of the president. So look, the Congress continues to do oversight. I set up a special task force to oversee the Fed's decision making since the 2008 financial crisis. We have that investigation, review, and oversight underway, and we'll continue it.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I think you'd acknowledge that most presidents might have those choice words behind closed doors, not on social media posts on a regular basis, Congressman. But on crypto, I want to ask you. Crypto has been the Wild West, right, in many ways, because they don't have the same kind of regulation in the digital asset space that there does exist for banks and financial services. You've got a few measures coming up this week.
MARGARET BRENNAN: How do you make sure, as you put these regulations in place that kind of help crypto become more mainstream, that it doesn't also benefit some of those on the black market, for example, who use this to evade oversight?
REP. HILL: Exactly. Well, in the work in the Senate led by Bill Hagerty and Tim Scott and Cynthia Lummis on the GENIUS Act to create a dollar-backed stablecoin, we've heavily influenced that legislation over the two years of previous work by the House and our Clarity Act, which sets up the rules of the road for what's a commodity, what's a security, how to use digital assets, how to store them, how to custody them. These are the rules that will protect consumers, will limit access to our market and our investors from entities outside the United States trying to influence the crypto markets. We have none of that today. What we've had is a mismatch of rules by enforcement in the Biden administration, and I believe the bills we'll have on the House floor this week will protect investors, consumers, and make America, as President Trump wants, a leader in financial technology and crypto and digital assets innovation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You know, sir, that the concern is that this is the patina of protection of consumers without actual muscle behind it. It was interesting to see, and many Americans who hold mortgages might have noticed, that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who buy and sell mortgages, that the head of the agency, the Federal Housing Agency, Bill Pulte, told them they'll have to prepare a proposal to review crypto as an asset on mortgage applications.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Given the huge taxpayer stake in Fannie, Freddie, are you comfortable with people using crypto, something that isn't really, you know, tangible in many ways, to pay for a down payment on a house?
REP. HILL: Well, look at Bitcoin, for example. One can now buy Bitcoin. It is a commodity. It's been determined that it's a commodity by the CFTC and the SEC. One can hold it in their brokerage account through an exchange-traded product, an ETF, ETP. It's now an asset for millions of Americans, and it certainly could be treated like a stock or a bond or cash as a contribution to someone's net worth to qualify for a mortgage. And if we pass Clarity this week, which I expect we will on a bipartisan basis, and we craft a dollar-backed stablecoin like GENIUS offered by Senator Hagerty, we'll have the rules of the road. It won't be a patina of consumer enforcement. It will be real consumer enforcement, investor protection--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --And the down payment for a house--
REP. HILL: --both by the CFTC, the SEC, and the bank, and the bank regulators. Well, look again. Bitcoin is an asset. You can determine if you think it's going to go up in value or down in value, just like stocks and bonds or other investments that people have on their financial statement to secure their financial statement for a net- for net worth purposes or to liquidate for a down payment. So, I think it's a financial asset. Our bills will make it a more secure one, and one that's better for, I think, all households and businesses.
MARGARET BRENNAN
I'm out of time, so I'm gonna have to leave it there. Thank you, Congressman. We'll be back.
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