Republican House Financial Services Chair French Hill is blocking a plan backed by GOP Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott.
House Financial Services Chair French Hill is blocking a bipartisan Senate plan for including financial policy provisions in a must-pass annual defense bill, putting the Arkansas Republican at odds with GOP Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott and stalling bicameral negotiations over the issues.
Hill has rejected a proposal to include in the National Defense Authorization Act most of the Senate’s ROAD to Housing package alongside a provision that would temporarily ban a central bank digital currency, according to three people with knowledge of the negotiations who were granted anonymity to discuss closed-door talks.
A proposed deal was sent to the House on Wednesday by Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and ranking member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), though it remains subject to ongoing talks. House Financial Services ranking member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is backing the effort.
The offer included a proposed compromise between House and Senate bills aimed at overhauling the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HOME program and a provision requiring a study on deposit insurance. The CBDC ban, which is a priority for House Republicans, would block the Federal Reserve from issuing a dollar-pegged digital token on a distributed ledger for the coming years. The Senate offer sent on Wednesday included a sunset after five years, but the issue remains subject to ongoing talks.
Hill rejected the offer late Wednesday, leaving the two chambers at an impasse over the NDAA’s financial policy provisions. Any language in the defense bill that deals with issues under the jurisdiction of House Financial Services and Senate Banking must receive sign-off from Hill, Scott, Warren and Waters — the committees’ so-called four corners. The standoff could result in no finance-related measures making it into the bill.
Hill has told his counterparts that he is hopeful about the prospects of a bicameral deal and supports some provisions of the Senate’s ROAD bill, according to a House GOP aide with knowledge of the matter. But he has said throughout the negotiations that some portions of the Senate plan are unpalatable to the majority of House Republicans and therefore cannot be tucked into the NDAA, the aide said.
House Financial Services’ timeline on housing legislation was slowed by the shutdown, but the panel is gearing up to advance its own bills in the coming weeks.
Waters, the top Democrat on House Financial Services, has backed the proposal and is working to get Hill on board, according to a Democratic aide with knowledge of the matter. Waters is a leading advocate for housing legislation, and the Senate’s ROAD bill includes several measures that have House counterparts the California Democrat has long supported.
Spokespeople for Hill, Waters, Warren and Scott declined to comment.