Transcription: French hill on

The next is the transcription of an interview with the representative French Hill, Republican of Arkansas, which was issued in “Fac The Nation with Margaret Brennan” on July 13, 2025.

Margaret Brennan: We now go to Congressman French Hill. He is the president of the Chamber Financial Services Committee. Welcome back to the transmission. His ears must have been playing with the two senators who began the program, because they were talking about grabbing some of those frozen Russian assets. He died a bill and gave the president’s authority to seize them during the last administration, by virtue of the resting law. The United States has never seized the assets of the Central Bank of another country. Do you know if the Treasury department will do it now?

REP. French Hill: Well, Margaret, it’s good to be with you. Yes, I certainly worked very hard with former Foreign President Mike McCaul and others to put it in our 2024 National Security Package during the Biden Administration, because we wanted another arrow in the laugh so that the President not only confisted those assets, but also turns them on the benefit of Ukraine. But we could never obtain a consensus between the United States and Europe for doing so, despite a unanimous vote of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that supports it. So I kept urging President Biden to do that. We have the interest of these frozen assets to benefit from Ukraine, but I think it is time for the president to convert those assets seized into a fiduciary account for the benefit of Ukraine. I’m glad to listen to Senators Blumenthal and Graham to support that idea. It is time to do it, and I have encouraged Secretary Besent that this should be a priority for President Trump.

Margaret Brennan: On another issue, because you have some supervision in the financial space, I want to ask you about the comments made regarding the president of the Fed, Jerome Powell. The president says that the economy is in good shape, but he still complains about the head of the Central Bank, says he is doing a terrible job because he is not lowering interest rates. In another network today, the president’s main economic advisor said that the White House is investigating whether the president has the authority to set fire to President Powell. Do you think the president has the power and authority to say goodbye to the president of the Fed?

REP. Hill: You know, Margaret, I don’t do it, and I think President Trump has talked about this several times in recent years, even recently. The governorate of Mr. Powell, its presidency, follows next spring. The president has vacancies at the Fed Board, where he could appoint another governor. But look, just because Congress created Fed and we believe it should be independent in the context of monetary policy, it does not mean that it is immune to criticism. And each president since World War II has had words of election for the president of the FED when they have not been synchronized with the president’s leadership. So look, Congress continues to overcome. I established a special working group to supervise the decision making of the Fed from the financial crisis of 2008. We have that research, review and supervision ongoing, and we will continue.

Margaret Brennan: I think he would recognize that most presidents could have those words of choice behind closed doors, not in social media publications, congressman. But in Crypto, I want to ask you. Crypto has been the Wild West, correct, in many ways, because they do not have the same type of regulation in the digital asset space that exists for banks and financial services. You have some measures to come this week.

Margaret Brennan: How do you ensure, by establishing these regulations instead that type of cryptography is more conventional, which does not benefit some of those in the black market, for example, who use this to evade supervision?

REP. HILL: Exactly. Well, at work in the Senate led by Bill Hagerty and Tim Scott and Cynthia Lummis on the Genius law to create a stable of support in dollars, we have greatly influenced the legislation on the two years of previous works of the Chamber and our act of clarity, which establishes the rules of the road of what is a merchandise, what is a security, how to use the digital assets digital, to them, to them. These are the rules that will protect consumers, limit access to our market and our investors from entities outside the United States that try to influence cryptographic markets. We have none of that today. What we have had is a rules of rules by the application of the Biden Administration, and I believe that the bills that we will have on the floor of the House of Representatives this week will protect investors, consumers and make the United States, as President Trump wants, a leader in financial technology and innovation of digital assets and digital assets.

Margaret Brennan: You know, Lord, that the concern is that this is the patina of consumer protection without real muscle behind him. It was interesting to see, and many Americans who have mortgages could have noticed, that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that buy and sell mortgages, that the agency’s head, the Federal Housing Agency, Bill Ablicte, told them that they will have to prepare a proposal to review Crypto as an asset in mortgage requests.

Margaret Brennan: Given the great participation of taxpayers in Fannie, Freddie, do you feel comfortable with people who use cryptography, something that really is not really, tangible in many ways, pay an initial payment of a house?

REP. Hill: Well, look bitcoin, for example. Now you can buy bitcoin. It is a merchandise. It has been determined that the CFTC and Sec. One can keep it in its brokerage account through a bag -quoted product, an ETF, ETP. It is now an asset for millions of Americans, and it could certainly be treated as an action or a bonus or effective as a contribution to someone’s net assets to qualify for a mortgage. And if we pass the clarity this week, which I hope we do it in a bipartisan way, and we prepare a stable backed by dollar as the genius offered by Senator Hagerty, we will have the rules of the road. It will not be a patina of consumer application. It will be a true consumer application, investor protection

Margaret Brennan: -And the initial payment of a house—

REP. HILL: -By by the CFTC, the SEC and the Bank, and the bank regulators. Well, look again. Bitcoin is an asset. You can determine if you believe that you will increase in value or lower value, as well as the shares and bonds or other investments that people have in their financial statement to ensure their financial statements for an end of net value or liquidate an initial payment. So, I think it is a financial asset. Our bills will make it a safer, and I think it is better for all homes and businesses.

Margaret Brennan

I am out of time, so I will have to leave it there. Thanks congressman. We will return.

• International Atomic Energy Agency