Opening Statements

Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development Chairman Dusty Johnson (SD-At Large) delivered the following opening statement at today's subcommittee hearing "American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets: On-Chain Tools for an Off-Chain World."

Remarks as prepared:

 Good afternoon. Welcome to our first meeting of the Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development for the 119th Congress. 

I want to congratulate Don Davis from North Carolina as our new Ranking Member. I know I’ll enjoy working with you as I enjoyed working with your predecessor, Yadira Caraveo. 

Mr. Davis isn’t the only one in a new role—almost half our subcommittee is new compared to last Congress. I think I can speak for the Ranking Member and say that we are thrilled to have you on this Committee. 

A portion of our work is digital assets, which we will focus on today. In the coming months, we will focus on the Committee’s rural development and rural energy priorities, oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and legislation to reauthorize the CFTC. 

Last Congress, this Committee did extraordinary work with our colleagues on the Financial Services Committee to craft and pass a bipartisan, comprehensive digital asset market structure bill – the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act. FIT21 passed the House with great bipartisan support by a 279-136 vote. 

We are picking up right where we left off last Congress. Earlier today, Chairman Steil’s Digital Asset Subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee held their first hearing on market structure. This was not a coincidence—we’ll be working side by side on legislation again this Congress. 

We are united and committed to advancing comprehensive, bipartisan market structure legislation to the President’s desk. Our legislation will bring legal certainty to issuers and users of digital assets, clear customer protections to buyers of digital assets, and new innovations to all Americans. 

Today, we are going to hear from entrepreneurs who are using blockchains and digital assets to solve real-world problems. 

This conversation isn’t really about crypto, but it’s about a few cattle guys trying to figure out how to make it easier and more profitable for ranchers to market their cattle. 

It’s about a gifted engineer trying to make a less expensive, more robust, and more precise GPS network for precision agriculture and other location-based systems. 

It’s about a law professor who is building automated systems to help developers comply with legal disclosure requirements in a way that consumers can actually understand. 

It’s about new ways to solve old problems, and these new ways use public blockchains. 

Our work on market structure legislation is ultimately about how to ensure that ranchers, engineers, college professors, and others can use digital tools to bring their ideas to life and unleash their American Dream. 

We have a terrific panel of witnesses to help us understand the work to develop new projects and the legal landmines which can disturb that effort and slow innovation. 

I am looking forward to today’s hearing, our work over the next few months, and ultimately, putting a bill on President Trump’s desk. 

With that, I will recognize my friend, the new Ranking Member of the Committee, Don Davis.