If you are curious what the priorities of the House Financial Services Committee will be under new Chair Rep. Patrick McHenry [R-N.C.], look no further than the decision to change the Subcommittee on Consumers Protections and Financial Institutions to the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy. Rep. McHenry announced the subcommittees and their chairs last week.
The subcommittees are:
- Subcommittee on Capital Markets, chaired by Rep. Ann Wagner [R-Mo.]
- Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy, chaired by Rep. Andy Barr [R-Ky.]
- Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Inclusion, chaired by Rep. French Hill [R-Ariz.]
- Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions, chaired by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer [R-Mo.]
- Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, chaired by Rep. Bill Huizenga [R-Mich.]
- Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, chaired by Rep. Warren Davidson [R-Ohio]
The digital assets subcommittee is new under Rep. McHenry and will attempt to oversee and regulate the troubled cryptocurrency markets.
Along with doing away with the consumer protection subcommittee, Rep. McHenry also chose not to have a Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion, which was first established by former chair Rep. Maxine Waters [D-Calif.], a decision that Rep. Waters did not endorse.
““I am deeply disappointed and disturbed to hear that Committee Republicans plan to eliminate the Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee,” she said in a statement. “When I assumed the chair in 2019, one of my first moves was to establish this subcommittee in an effort to add greater scrutiny to the financial services industry, which for so long, has been overwhelmingly White and male.”
