Crypto-friendly Patrick McHenry takes interim House Speaker position
United States Representative and crypto-friendly lawmaker Patrick McHenry has been appointed as interim House Speaker after the high-profile ousting of U.S. House speaker Kevin McCarthy.
McCarthy’s ousting came after a 216-210 vote by Congress, with eight of the 216 votes coming from McCarthy’s fellow Republicans, marking the first time a House Speaker has been removed in U.S. history, according to Reuters.
The vote was prompted by a motion from one of McCarthy’s political rivals, Matt Gaetz, who called into question several contradictory promises made by McCarthy.
Though temporary, McHenry’s appointment could be seen as a small win for the digital asset sector. The Speaker sets the House’s legislative agenda, controls committee assignments, and schedules specific bills to be debated and voted upon in the chamber.
House Speaker is considered the most influential position in the U.S. government behind the President and Vice President.
Meanwhile, McHenry is regarded as one of the biggest challengers to the Securities Exchange Commission’s regulation by enforcement-style approach to the cryptocurrency sector.
McHenry also grilled SEC Chair Gary Gensler in his testimony before Congress last week, suggesting he’s attempting to “choke off the digital asset ecosystem.” McHenry also called Gensler out for refusing to be transparent with Congress about the SEC’s connections with FTX and its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.
SEC Chair @GaryGensler refuses to schedule a Commission vote to provide Congress with requested documents.
Should Gensler continue to stonewall, Republicans will have no choice but to issue the first subpoena to the SEC from my Committee to compel their production. https://t.co/Aw5U0aJ0Tt
McHenry also released the
Read more on cointelegraph.com
