The crypto industry won’t benefit from an overturned legal doctrine that forced courts to use federal agency interpretations of ambiguous laws unless Congress passes legislation limiting what those agencies can regulate, said Representative Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Republican.
“I don’t think Chevron deference changes a whole lot,” Emmer told Cointelegraph at the Permissionless conference in Utah on Oct. 9.
“You gotta put the authority back with Congress [...] We have authority now, but we’ve not shown the ability yet to take back the power of the purse and to hold these different agencies accountable.”
The United States Supreme Court overruled the Chevron doctrine in June, meaning US courts no longer need to “defer” to federal agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission when interpreting ambiguous statutes.
Emmer (right) in a panel discussion at Permissionless. Source: Turner Wright/Cointelegraph
Emmer acknowledged that crypto-related bills have seen more bipartisan support lately, pointing to the 71 Democrat Representatives that voted in favor with their Republican counterparts for the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act in May.
Still, Emmer said, only a Donald Trump win in the Nov. 5 presidential election and Republicans controlling the House and Senate could make Chevron impactful.
“[Only then] you could maybe see for the first time in 30 years, a government that gets a budget and that actually enforces the budget and holds these agencies accountable.”
Should Trump win, Emmer is confident that Congress will see more lawmakers with “institutional knowledge” of crypto-related matters.
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Emmer has been particularly critical of the SEC’s treatment of the crypto industry.
Emmer scolded SEC Chair Gary Gensler in a congressional hearing last month, alleging he made up the term “crypto asset security” and used it to assist his “enforcement crusade.”
“Your inconsistencies on this issue have set this country back,” Emmer told Gensler. “We could not have had a more historically destructive or lawless chairman of the SEC.”
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Additional reporting by Turner Wright.