Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott Previews Historic Vote on Clarity Act

With us now, I'm pleased to say the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and one of the bill's lead sponsors, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. Senator, thank you for joining us. I'm just going to ask you point blank, is this thing going to pass? It will ultimately pass without any question. Today is the first really important vote that we've seen on the floor. It is time for everyone to put their cards on the table, Taylor. And the like the mother that raised me in poverty in a single parent household to realize the benefit of lower prices and stronger access, you vote no against this procedural motion. If you want everyday hardworking Americans to have more access to their resources, more options on the table, and you want America to be the leading financial country on the planet, you vote yes. It allows for the conversation to continue. And that's in the best interests of America's future and everyday working Americans, their future, too. Yes, Senator. This is Marcus. I don't think anybody disagrees with all the affordability issues that you're mentioning. But this Clarity Act is really about a framework allowing the free market to do what it wants to do with currency. And when we look at this clarity bill, I wonder how many of your peers in the Senate actually understand what the framework is. I listened to Elizabeth Warren talk to us about how President Trump's going to make more money, but I think she's missing the point. The free market is telling us that it's looking for alternative ways to deploy capital and alternative assets and how those are going to be stored and how they're going to be tracked. Do many of the senators really understand how this system works or how it could work? Marcus, it seems like our Democrats do not really fully appreciate what's happening here. Many have called this the Internet of money. It's that powerful and important. But more importantly, Marcus, we know that there are some Democrats, particularly the ones who are speaking out today, they're never going to vote for clarity. They don't want market structure to pass. The truth is that without market structure actually being embedded in the laws of our country, you have the wild, wild West. And what we see every single time we step up to create rules of the road, Americans are safer. Developers understand their power and the direction necessary to create here at home in America. We want all those things happening on behalf of our consumers. Without it happening, we put more jeopardy in the system, not less. Rules of the road matter. Today, those folks who are concerned about banks versus crypto as it relates to paying interest or rewards today, they can do whatever they want to do. Marcus, this actually makes it harder, not easier. I think one of the angles that Republicans can use in trying to get this bill passed is understanding that tokenization is actually a form of creating affordability because that allows for various capital structures to exist. And if you look at a young family that's looking to buy a home, their ability to tokenize their house and raise money in different ways, giving different levels of return could be the pathway to actually seeing those Americans who've been dying for a home actually be able to achieve that. So I hope you're able to accomplish that. Absolutely. This is a good day for Americans who believe in affordability. We frankly have seen Democrats step out and frankly step up and say we don't want Americans to experience more affordability. And it's not just crypto, by the way, Marcus Taylor. It's actually think about the fact that every Senate Democrat voted against lowering taxes for people earning tips, people earning overtime and frankly, people on Social Security. So the pattern that we see is consistent and it actually sends a clearer message to the American people. If you're a hardworking American, it's the Democrats that are standing in the way, not Republicans. Senator, I want to get your thoughts on sort of housing and that aspect of affordability as well. Of course, you know, you're the chairman of the Housing and Urban Affairs Committee mortgage rates. That is there almost seven percent. What are you guys doing to alleviate some of the pressures that Americans are feeling? Well, there's no doubt that if you look at the housing bill that I sponsored took me about three and a half years to get it passed. Mayors, governors and frankly, members of Congress in the Senate all celebrate the fact that housing prices and affordability will become better because of the bill that we passed. It will take time for it to get into the ether, so to speak, into the system. But the good news is whether you look at modular construction, which is a fabulous alternative, eliminating the chassis requirement as we have actually makes housing more available. You look at different aspects of the legislation. It moves in the direction of giving more people a better chance to have equity in America. We call the American dream home ownership. So we're moving in the right direction. Certainly rates do matter, Taylor. That's without any question. But let's remember that the interest rate that we hear is incredibly important, what the Fed does. But the 10-year bond rates are really important as well. So there are multiple factors that impact the actual rate that we see for mortgage. But we have to continue to work to make housing supply more available and make the alternatives in housing more available. By doing so, I think you'll usher in a new day of home ownership in America. Senator, I would comment that had you included in that bill the indexing of capital gains on house prices and house sales to inflation, I think that would have been much more impactful on supply. But I want to go back to Elizabeth Warren. I think you make a good point there, by the way, because at the end of the day, our Democrat friends would refuse to allow for us to have that conversation. Indexing is something we should be doing throughout the entire financial system, especially on capital gains on that 250. It should be much higher right now. I agree. And I can't tell you how many people have actually said to me, I can't afford to sell my house because I can't afford to capital gain whatever. Exactly. And going back to Elizabeth Warren's concern, is it just her view that I assume President Trump is being grandfathered on his involvements in crypto and that's why she is so offended? I mean, is this just all politics from her? Because she likes to regulate, you know, what time of day it is. I can't imagine that she isn't for more regulation in this industry. Well, the ranking member has been the banking committee has been opposed to the crypto legislation moving forward. As far as I can tell the entire time, the fact that that's before we had an ethics compromise on the table, frankly, having the president of the United States for the first time in the history of this country, abide and put himself and the vice president under the laws, the federal laws of this country. That is a remarkable shift in the right direction. President Trump should actually be applauded for doing something no other president has done. Number one, number two, he and Elizabeth will probably never be on the same page on this issue or frankly, almost any issue. And so politics continues, unfortunately. But that's not in the best interest of our country. I'll say this quickly. Taylor Marcus, I'm a guy who believes the American dream should be more available for everybody in every zip code. And making that happen means we have to do the right thing even when it's hard. This is not a political issue. This should not be Republicans versus Democrats. This should be about whether or not America and Americans will benefit from the evolution of financial markets. And if we do not, we will not benefit. That's the bottom line. Okay, well, we'll leave it there. Senator Tim Scott, thank you for joining. Yes, ma'am. We'll be right back.