"Waters Revives Bipartisan Stablecoin Bill, Challenging GOP's STABLE Act"

California Representative Maxine Waters has called on her colleagues in the US House of Representatives to support a bipartisan bill governing payment stablecoins, which was drafted during the previous session of Congress. In a Feb. 10 notice, Rep. Waters suggested that a 2024 stablecoin bill drafted by then-House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry and her staff members would be preferable to other legislation proposed by lawmakers in the 119th session of Congress.

According to Rep. Waters, the bill represented "three years’ worth of work to craft bipartisan stablecoins legislation." It included provisions to close loopholes for issuers to circumvent US laws by operating abroad and barring certain convicted fraudsters from working at a senior level at stablecoin firms. Rep. Waters stated, "At the start of this Congress, Chair Hill extended a hand of bipartisanship to work on stablecoins legislation. I firmly believe that the legislation that I’ve unveiled today provides the best foundation for moving forward and getting urgently needed stablecoins legislation signed into law."

Rep. Waters' announcement came four days after House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill and Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence chair Bryan Steil — both Republicans — released their version of a payment stablecoin bill discussion draft. Rep. Hill's notice suggested that Republican lawmakers in the House had not worked with Democrats to draft the legislation but were seeking bipartisan support.

Both draft bills came before the digital assets subcommittee was scheduled to meet for a hearing discussing "a path forward" for crypto legislation, including on stablecoins. Rep. Steil's proposed stablecoin bill, titled Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or STABLE Act, was included in the memo for the hearing — Rep. Waters' and McHenry's joint legislation was not.

According to Reps. Hill and Steil, the STABLE Act differs from a similar bill introduced in 2023, the Clarity for Payment Stablecoin Act, by giving the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency "the authority to approve and supervise federally qualified nonbank payment stablecoin issuers." A Democratic staffer told Cointelegraph that Rep. Waters was "not supportive" of the Republican-led bill.

In the other chamber, a group of Republican senators introduced legislation on Feb.