Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, delivered the following opening statement during a full Committee markup.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

When I was Chair of this Committee, I launched the Congressional effort to create a federal framework around stablecoins. I wanted robust protections, especially in the wake of major crypto scams that robbed investors of their lifesavings

After years of hard work, former Chair McHenry and I came to a bipartisan agreement that while not perfect was a great step in that direction.  And Mr. Chairman, I think you worked also with Mr. McHenry to come to where we had decided we could agree on a number of things.

But things have changed. Since last Congress, President Trump has come into office and leveraged the power of the Presidency to establish multiple crypto schemes to enrich himself and his family. From a fraudulent memecoin – which collectively lost his investors $2 billion while him and his family pocketed $350 million – to a crypto reserve that boosts the price of crypto held by him and his cabinet – to, most recently, launching in the middle of our negotiation his own stablecoin, through, World Liberty Financial. It is a display of greed.

So, Mr. Chairman, I attempted to talk to you last week, and what I really wanted was that we could agree that we not pass a bill that legitimizes what is blatant greed and corruption. And I wanted you to work with me and I wanted inserted language into the bill, so we could move forward, to prevent the President from using this legislation to unjustly enrich himself. We could not come to an agreement on that.

With this stablecoin bill, this Committee is setting an unacceptable and dangerous precedent validating the President and his insiders’ efforts to write rules of the road that will enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else. And I understand that you were heard, at some point, saying that Trump's entanglements make this work “more difficult,” but Mr. Chairman, that is hands down the understatement of the year. Trump likely wants the entire government to use stablecoins, from payments made by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to social security payments to paying taxes. And which coin do you think Trump would replace the dollar with – his own, of course.

Despite the fact that this absolutely harms this bill, there’s some other things that I don’t really agree with, and I was hoping that we may be able to work out some of these things with amendments. But, if we go forward with this bill knowing the President of the United States of America and his wife have already created their memecoin, and now in the middle of the work that we’re trying to do – where you and Mr. McHenry and I – have put forth such an effort. If he’s not blocked from owning a stablecoin, I cannot go any further with any amendments to try and agree on some of the other things that I have some problems with. But, because of the work that we have done for so long I’m trying, and I’ve tried very hard to come to some agreements. And I thought maybe with some amendments, for those things I still worry about, we could come to some agreements. But, if there is no effort to block the President of the United States of America from owning his stablecoin business just as he owns crypto, which is his largest asset now, I will never be able to agree on supporting this bill. And I would ask other members not to be enablers allowing the President of the United States to get with this.

I yield back.

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