Congress Sets Financial Policy Agendas
February 6, 2023
The Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees have packed agendas for the first several weeks of 2023.
Why it matters: Agendas show where Congress will focus its attention, and the policy and political priorities of both parties.
House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry (R-NC) organized his committee last week and plans nearly a dozen committee meetings through the end of March, including:
- A Tuesday hearing on China.
- Hearings on data privacy, followed by February 28 votes.
- Hearings on capital formation legislation, followed by March 28-29 votes.
- Testimony by Fed Chair Jerome Powell on March 8.
- A full committee hearing on digital assets on March 9.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), now House Financial Services Ranking Member, cried foul at McHenry’s decision to scrap the diversity and inclusion subcommittee she first established as chair. McHenry instead made DEI part of the other Financial Services subcommittees.
What's next: Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced the hearing schedule for the full committee in February, including:
- “The State of Housing 2023” on February 9 at 10am.
- “Crypto Crash: Why Financial System Safeguards Are Needed for Digital Assets” on February 14 and 10am.
- “Advancing National Security and Foreign Policy Through Sanctions, Export Controls, and Other Economic Tools” on February 28 at 10am.
- Additional hearings may be added.
All hearings will be live streamed on www.banking.senate.gov.
What they’re saying: Politico reported Brown’s crypto plan is not clear, but part of his goal is to “smoke out what’s happening internationally with crypto” on national security, including countries that use it to “run weapons and drugs and all kinds of unseemly activities that crypto can enable.”
Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-SC) separately announced his own priorities. Scott doesn’t drive the agenda, but his priorities include a number of issues that could achieve bipartisan agreement. Scott is a rumored Republican Presidential aspirant.
Contact Justin Ailes (jailes@crefc.org) or David McCarthy at (dmccarthy@crefc.org) with questions.