Arkansas Congressman French Hill (R) Talks Tax Bill Latest
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Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news. Republican Congressman French Hill of Arkansas is joining us. He's, of course, chair of the House Financial Services Committee. Mr. Chairman, welcome back to Bloomberg TV and radio. What is your expectation as to what exactly is going to happen this evening? Will you get a chance to vote on the rule and will the rule pass? Well, Kayleigh and Joe, it's great to be back with you on this historic day.

Look, I think President Trump met with a number of members this morning. Speaker Johnson has been meeting with members on a regular basis to try to clarify the differences between what the Senate did to the House bill. I think we will find a landing spot. And I'm optimistic that we will have the votes ultimately to pass this bill so that members can get home to their families for the Fourth of July.

It's good to see you, Mr. Chairman. Are you calling this historic because you think we're actually going to see a floor vote here or pass a rule? Or is it time to get everybody in a room and consider a conference committee? Even the president seems to think that this self-imposed deadline could slide. Well, it's certainly conceivable, and that's certainly one way to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate.

But these are bills, Joe, that have been worked on for over a year. And some of these differences between the House and Senate, whether it's on SALT taxes or on Medicaid provider taxes or other provisions, are quite well known. And I have to say that some of the reasons that the spending levels, spending cut levels were reduced in the Senate is due to the Senate parliamentarians' rules. And so there's nothing that House Freedom Caucus can do about that.

Well, Mr. Chairman, we've heard some talk today of what these holdouts may look for if it's not changing the bill itself in order to secure their vote, like, for example, pledges from the president to do executive orders to achieve some of their aims or potentially even a second reconciliation bill. But, sir, if it's this hard to do the first reconciliation bill, do you think there's any real chance you could pull off another one in this Congress?

Well, in each fiscal year, the House and Senate can use budget reconciliation. We can certainly do another reconciliation bill after the turn of the fiscal year on October 1st. This one is made difficult by the expiring tax provisions from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and for the president's goals of reducing taxation on Social Security recipients and on tips.

and achieving his budget goals for both defense and homeland security, one would not face that same mix of issues in a budget reconciliation bill that we do in the next fiscal year. So I don't think you can compare one to the other.

We talked to your colleague from Ohio today, Jim Jordan, who brought the message now or never, essentially, Mr. Chairman, it's not going to get better, was his point based on the vote that we saw in the Senate. Listen to what Chairman Jordan said. You have to kind of figure out how we get the votes, moderates and conservatives working together. I think we've done that. And by the fact that it was 50-50 in the Senate,

I just feel like, okay, there's no more wiggle room. It was 50 to 50. We're gonna have to pass this thing and then look for other opportunities down the road to do some additional things relative to the deficits and the debt. - Does he have a point, Congressman? Is this as good as it gets? - Well, look, all bills like this are compromises. I think he outlines it quite favorably.

And I believe this bill is the best the two houses can produce, accomplishing both President Trump's goals as well as the goals that both conservative and more moderate Republicans have in the House. I think you see them splitting that difference in what's come back from the Senate. And that's why I think that cooler heads will prevail and that we'll find the votes to move this bill forward. It is historic.

to cut spending, lower the focus on the mandatory spending programs. It will be, for example, in my committee, the first structural change to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 15 years since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. This is something that Republicans have said they have wanted to do for years. If we pass this bill, we will have done it.

Well, I want to ask you about some other work your committee has ahead once this reconciliation effort is behind you, possibly as soon as later this month, Mr. Chairman, and that is crypto legislation. We spoke with Republican Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, who, of course, was spearheading the Genius Act that passed the Senate last month about that stablecoin legislation and what comes next. This is what he told us, sir, and we'll have you respond.

It's going to be complicated here because of two committees that have to be involved in this and it's going to take more time. I think my advice to everybody would be let's take the win now, let's build momentum and then let's dedicate our time to going further as market structure and other opportunities present themselves. But right now timing is critical for a number of reasons. We want to get this started, we want to get this moving and again open up this new market for digital assets.

Mr. Chairman, he wants stablecoin legislation now, market structure legislation later. Is that likely what we're going to see out of your committee?

Well, first, let me say that Bill Hagerty has done an outstanding job in the Senate being a real voice for leadership to find consensus between Republicans and Democrats for a dollar-backed payment stablecoin. This is something that the House has worked on for years. And we're so glad to have strong Senate partners like Chairman Tim Scott, Bill Hagerty, Cynthia Lummis, and many, many others on both sides of the aisle.

But it's also a goal of President Trump's to have market structure legislation as well. So it's my goal as chairman over here in the House that we're able to have a legislative strategy that produces both for President Trump, a clear view on how to have a dollar back stable coin using the outstanding work by Bill Hagerty in the Senate, and also create a market structure framework that gives clarity

to market participants, brings all this business back to the U.S. We can do both. We will do both. And we're discussing between the House and the Senate how best to get that done. So how does that affect the timeline? Mr. Chairman, if you do it all in one, obviously that would take a little bit longer. When would you then see President Trump's agenda be implemented?

Well, look, if it takes a little longer, that's a decision. The president asked both Tim Scott and I to try to achieve both these goals, a dollar-backed payment stablecoin and market structure by August 1st, before the August recess in the Congress. That's going to be challenging based on the time we're using on budget reconciliation and other priorities.

But, look, we're working to find the best strategy to get those to the president's desk as soon as possible. That goal has not changed since January 20, and we're hard at it.

And finally, Mr. Chairman, and we discussed this with Chairman Jordan today as well, Bill Pulte, who leads the FHFA, has called for an investigation into the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. Chairman Jordan suggested the Judiciary Committee might take a look at that. But do you have a view as to whether or not Chairman Powell should face a congressional investigation?

Well, I didn't see Mr. Polte's charges or the assertion, so I don't have any comment on what he said. We just had Chairman Powell before our committee and the Senate Banking Committee last week. And I set up a special task force for this Congress, led by Frank Lucas of Oklahoma, to

to look at the monetary policy decisions taken by the Fed since 2008 in the financial crisis, and also look at the resiliency of U.S. Treasury markets. Those are both well underway and well led by Frank Lucas of Oklahoma.

It's great to have you back with us, Republican Congressman French Hill of Arkansas, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee. Good luck if it's a late night, Mr. Chairman. We'd love to stay in touch with you on this. Good to be with you, Joe. Good to be with you, Kayleigh. Did you know using your browser in incognito mode doesn't actually protect your privacy? Take back your privacy with IPVanish VPN. Just one tap and all your data, passwords, communications, browsing history, and more will be instantly protected.

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