Remarks of Ericka Taylor, Americans for Financial Reform
I am Ericka Taylor, Co-Executive Director of Americans for Financial Reform, a non-profit formed in the wake of the financial crisis to fight for a financial system that works for everyone. We’re happy to join the members of Congress and our allies here today to share our grave concerns about the CLARITY Act.
The CLARITY Act was crafted by and for crypto billionaires.
Crypto is not operating with nearly the same guardrails as the rest of the financial system, and the crypto industry is working hard to keep it that way. If their efforts are successful, it will expose all of us—not just crypto investors—to increased fraud, crime, and dangerous instability. It will also give a green light to crypto corruption.
The President’s family crypto businesses have racked up billions from their corrupt ventures.
This bill does nothing to address that, and in fact rewards the grift. It gives crypto billionaires the exact policy outcomes they have been trying to buy. Those policies threaten the retirement security of millions of workers and undermine financial security for people across the country. They embolden scammers to prey on people, including older adults. And they create loopholes that make it harder to stop money launderers and traffickers.
This bill is dangerous, and people get that. AFR recently released a poll that found that:
- Large majorities of Democrats, Republicans and Independents think crypto has too much influence in Washington and are worried that crypto donations will deliver a legislative giveaway to industry.
- A majority of voters think crypto is an unregulated, unstable market that should have to play by the same kind of rules as other financial companies, not get special exceptions.
Members of Congress must reject a bill that fails to curb the Trump family’s crypto-fueled self-dealing, fails to protect people’s pocket books or broader financial stability, and creates carveouts and privileges for a corrupt industry.
Make no mistake. A vote for this bill is a vote for Trump’s crypto corruption and a vote for the crypto billionaires demanding that lawmakers do their bidding. The public wants and deserves better.