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Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D - NY) Talks Crypto Market Structure Legislation
00:11:34
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Studios Podcasts Radio News and joining us now on Bloomberg TV and radio is Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who is joining us live from the Solana Accelerate Event Salon as flagship US event in Miami, where of course the CoinDesk Consensus Conference is also being held this week. Senator, thank you so much for joining us. You are of course there at this week's conferences in Florida, having been long standing one of the congressional leaders in the crypto region regulatory space, obviously with a successful push around stablecoins with the passage of the Genius act in the Senate last year, now we have questions as to whether or not that success can be replicated with the Clarity Act. Now that a compromise has been reached on the language around stablecoin yield and rewards, I wonder if you think this thing is on track to passage, knowing that it does seem bank industry groups still might have some some issue with that language.
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I do. I think it's on track and I'm optimistic. We're still putting to bed a few items. We're trying to make sure there's ways to crack down on illicit finance and terrorism financing. And we're still working on an ethics provision to make sure no members of Congress, the president, vice president, any senior administration official can't be an issuer of a cryptocurrency or meme coin or promote it or advocate for it in any way. So that one provision is key to getting the Democratic support that we have been building. And I'm optimistic that we will reach an agreement on that in advance of the markup for the Banking Committee, which should happen in the next two weeks.
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So what could the timeline be realistically for ultimate passage, do you think, assuming it can advance out of committee?
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So my hope is that we have a successful Banking Committee markup and these last few provisions are included in the agreement. And, and once that is completed, we will work with the Agriculture Committee and try to merge the banking and Agriculture draft. The Agriculture Committee markup, however, was was partisan and so there were a lot of agreed upon bipartisan ideas before that in an earlier draft that we're going to try to reintegrate back into the final version. So those negotiations are going to be very important. They may take several weeks to do, but my hope is we can do those negotiations as soon as banking's finished, spend two or three weeks before, if needed, on those negotiations, merge the bill and hopefully get that bill to the floor.
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Well, and I want to go back to the ethics concerns you were mentioning. Senator is at consensus in Miami this week. The President's sons, Eric, Trump, Don Jr. They are both featured speakers. And I wonder to what extent is still the involvement directly of the President's family in this space that is acting as kind of an impediment to bipartisan progress?
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Well, you know, those are, those are business interests of Trump family members. Our legislation will just prohibit it, prohibit the principals from being an issuer or a promoter of these cryptocurrencies or meme coins or stablecoins. We just don't want people who are in positions of authority to be able to make money on the side off the backs of the American people based on nonpublic information. So it's very important that these basic ethic rules, ethics rules, apply to people in positions of power. And I think this is something that we can get the White House to agree to. I think they should not ultimately be an impediment on this. And I'm hoping that we can get those negotiations done in the next couple of weeks and I'd really like them to be done in advance of the Banking Committee markup.
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How well we'll be continuing to watch that closely. Another narrative we're tracking closely here at Bloomberg is artificial intelligence and, and how it's impacting the labor market. Coinbase, which is a sponsor of the consensus conference, obviously announced today that it's going to be reducing its workforce by 14%. And Brian Armstrong, the CEO, says in large part that is due to artificial intelligence. And I wonder from a policymaking perspective, if you think a response is going to be required by, from a policy standpoint to kind of ensure the labor market against what, what could be a material softening because of AI as we see other tech companies, because they're going to spend so much capex developing that technology, also looking to reduce their headcount, be it matter or other companies.
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Yes. So when we complete our work on market structure for cryptocurrency and blockchain, I am going to start working on a framework for AI. And the largest question is that is going to inform that framework is how do you guarantee the future of work? How do you make sure you have a vision for this country where people who need to be trained, need to be have access, new markets can do jobs that they are excited about and make sure that if There is job loss related to AI that we reform our education system, build upon our education system so that people, young people and even mid career people can get employed in areas they want to be employed and have the training to do so. And that's going to have to be a conversation that is part of when you regulate AI, that hopefully they can be a cornerstone investor into this vision of education and an economy where people can have that guarantee of a job that allows them to not only have just the human dignity of making an impact on society, but also to be able to provide for their families. And I think that's part of the American dream and that will be part of any regulation we do in the AI space, how we look at the future of work and how you make that work with a framework for AI regulation.
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And Senator, if we could switch gears a bit, as you obviously also sit on the Armed Services Committee, I'd like to ask you about Iran, as there is now this Project Freedom trying to ensure once again free transit through the Strait of Hormuz that the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said today is separate and distinct from the combat operations. The Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this is fundamentally a rescue mission for more than 20,000 sailors and workers on commercial vessels who are stranded right now. Do you see this as separate from activity that would require Congressional, Congressional authorization?
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No, it's not separate at all. And right now the American people are asking a very direct question. This is an illegal, unauthorized war. And the American people want to know why President Trump is spending $1 billion a day on a war they don't want. Instead of getting their grocery costs down, getting their housing costs down and getting their fuel costs down. And this straigh of Hormuz issue is one of the main drivers of high costs of gasoline to fill our tanks, to take our kids to school, diesel to fill truckers tanks so they can bring goods across America and fuel costs for heating and for air conditioning across the country. These costs are fundamental to the American economy and fundamental to American families. And so they're just asking at what cost is this war, this illegal, unauthorized war going to continue to be waged for without the, the support of the American people? They would rather President Trump spend that billions of dollars a day guaranteeing health care for their, their families and their neighbors or getting the cost of groceries or housing down.
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Are you hearing behind closed doors, Senator, from your Republican colleagues that something may change in the near future in terms of their willingness to support something like a, a war powers vote or an Authorization of use of military force. Are we. Are we approaching a turning point?
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I certainly hope so, because when I'm in New York State, New Yorkers are furious at the president right now. They are so frustrated that he's not come to the American people, that he is spending $25 billion so far, is set to ask for another $200 billion, all while their gas prices are going up. And so I know Republicans are hearing the same things from their constituents in their states. So because of that, I believe they will come to the table and try to hold this administration at some point accountable for a very unpopular war that isn't authorized and the American people don't support. Three in five Americans are against this war today, and that's because they're paying for it at the pump. And they've been shown no reason why we had to engage in this war and that there was no risk to the American people that President Trump had to protect them from.
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Well, and it's those higher prices at the pump that now seem to be fueling a building narrative that Democrats may have a better chance of flipping the Senate blue once again in the midterms. That, of course, is what you're charged with chairing the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. I just wonder, as you look across this widening map, take Iowa, where the vice president is today, and where there's talk that Democrats may actually stand a chance, something we haven't seen in 18 years, or Texas or Alaska or Maine. It takes money to. You have to pay to play in all those different places. So I'm wondering how you're approaching it strategically and financially, this. This wider map.
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Yeah. So right now we have a map of 11 states. And the reason why we have so many states that could go from red to blue is because of the climate that President Trump has created with his toxic policies. He promised that he wasn't get involved in wars. He promised to get grocery and housing costs down, and he's done everything. But we now are engaged in at least two wars, one with Venezuela and one with Iran, both illegal, both unauthorized. He's done nothing to bring cost of groceries and housing down. The cost at the pump continues to rise because of the war in Iran. And so President Trump is very unpopular right now. And the Republicans that are aiding and abetting him, not standing up to him, not demanding groceries and housing costs come down, they're going to be held accountable at the ballot box. And so we have talented candidates running in red and purple states all across the country right now. And so we have A few states we are defending, and then we have eight states that are now in play because of President Trump's toxic policies.
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And speaking of the president's policies, finally, Senator, he obviously has a big push toward building this new ballroom at the White House. And according to the reconciliation text that we saw released last night from Senator Grassley, there's $1 billion allotted in there for Secret Service. Specifically, as it rel to the ballroom, does that make this ultimately a done deal? Is there anything Democrats can do to stop that construction, knowing reconciliation is by nature a partisan process?
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So what Democrats are doing is talking to their constituents about what matters to them. And I can tell you in New York State, they do not want President Trump spending their tax dollars on a ballroom that we don't need. He they want President Trump to be focused on the small businesses, the family farms, getting these chaotic tariffs down, making sure that we get the cost of gasoline and fuel down, making sure he's actually focused on their grocery bills and their heating bills and their medical bills. The fact that he's spending $25 billion on a war instead of restoring Medicaid to millions of people is, frankly, an outrage. And so I do think we're going to flip the Senate and the House in November, and people are going to expect their concerns with President Trump by voting differently and voting for Democrats in a lot of red and purple places.
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