Sen. Tim Scott joins Fox Business' Mornings with Maria to discuss Clarity Act and Senate priorities

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Joining me now is South Carolina Senator Tim Scotty is the chairman of the committee, the Senate Banking Committee, and Senator, it's great to have you this morning. Thank you so much for being here. [00:00:09] Speaker 2: Of course, it's good to be on your brilliant show. Thank you very much, Maria. Good to see you again. [00:00:13] Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Senator. So you have been working on this bill. The Senate has been working on this bill for over a year. Do you believe it can get across the finish line this week before you leave? Or is this something to attack when you're back? No, ma'am. This is something we should [00:00:30] Speaker 2: have the first vote before we leave without any question. John Doon has an opportunity to tee it up for a vote before we leave. And frankly, we'll be here longer than just the next two days. We might be here much longer. So the good news is we have the time to get it done. This is in the best interest of protecting consumers and allowing innovation to happen here in America. Really important time for us. We'll get it done. Republicans are coalescing. And that's great news. That'll bring Democrats along. [00:00:58] Speaker 1: So, Senator, is it still the same issues? I know that President Trump has shown a willingness to accept language on ethics in the bill. So we've gotten that from President Trump. Was that enough to placate the Democrats who don't want the president to benefit from any crypto business? Or is it largely what Josh Hawley is worried about? And that is what the banks have to say about the crypto platforms? What's holding [00:01:24] Speaker 2: it up? Well, Maria, the truth of the matter is the Democrats have been stonewalling for a year now. Every time we say yes, they move the goalposts. This goes back to President Obama, President Biden. We continue to see the goalposts move. Democrats have that as an ultimate strategy. Here on the area of clarity, what we're seeing are the same kind of stalling tactics they've been using for more than a year. When banking committee Republicans coalesced around the bill, everyone getting in line, then we were able to get Democrats to come aboard. We'll do the same type of strategy once we have the vast majority of Republicans saying yes, I believe the Democrats come to the table and find a way to yes. They don't want democratization, it appears to me. If you want democratization, if you want single mothers to have more access to their resources immediately, you want cryptocurrency digital assets to blossom here at home in America. Democrats can join us and make democratization a reality for everyday working Americans today. [00:02:28] Speaker 1: But the Republicans are not all on board, right? Because, I mean, you've got Mitch McConnell who's not been present for a vote. You've got Josh Hawley who says he's not going to vote yes because of what the concerns are from the banking sector. You've got Susan Collins that we're watching because of her, obviously, contested election. What do you want to say in terms of the Republican support behind this? [00:02:51] Speaker 2: Well, listen, I worked on Republican members yesterday. We made progress. We picked up more votes yesterday. Every single hour, we get more folks saying yes to the procedural vote. It allows us to continue to conversation and fight over some of those domain issues that you talked about. President Trump, let's remind ourselves, President Trump has done something no other president in the history of our country said yes to, which is complying to the ethics strategy and standard for all elected officials. We've never had a president ever say yes to that issue, that question. So it's good news. We're making progress there on the issue of rewards. Right now, Maria, crypto firms can do anything they want because there is no regulatory standard for rewards. Passing clarity actually creates rules of the road that are in the best interest of the American financial system, and it will maintain our supremacy around the world as the number one economic superpower for the future. Yeah, it's a great point. All right, [00:03:59] Speaker 1: let me move on to other business because obviously we are in the middle of a war with Iran, and we've depleted our weapons, and the Defense Department needs money for that. The Senate is scheduled to begin recess tomorrow. You said probably going to be here longer. So you'll be here, you think, through the weekend, because John Thune indicated that nobody's leaving town until a stack of stuff gets done, including funding government. But then you've got reconciliation 3.0. You've got the Save America Act. We mentioned the clarity. But the NDAA is really what I wanted to get to, because the defense money is important, and it doesn't seem like that is going anywhere either. And then there's Russia sanctions. So give us your thoughts in terms of what the priorities here are this week. [00:04:44] Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, the good news, they're all priorities, number one. Number two, let's remember once again, Democrats, for the first time, Maria, in 60 years, are refusing to give us a bipartisan NDAA. They refuse to vote on the NDAA. That means that they're not supporting our troops. That is a position that is untenable. No matter whether you're a Democrat or Republican, you should call your Democrat senators and tell them to get off their seats and start supporting our troops by supporting the NDAA. It's happened for 60 years. This is the first time that Roger Wicker, pulling his hair out as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, can't get Democrats to do their jobs. Our constitutional responsibility starts with funding our military, number one. Number two, keeping the government open. Remember, the Democrats led us into a 43-day shutdown. We can avoid that by getting the government funded before we leave. That is on the market as well. And then there's sports bills. There's online protection for our kids. There's clarity. There's so much to do. And we have the time to get it done. Let's just get the job done so that we can get back to winning elections on the campaign trail. [00:06:02] Speaker 1: But good policy leads to good politics. But do you feel like those other bills like clarity and the others that you mentioned, perhaps reconciliation 3.0, are priorities for when you come back? You'll only have, what, 30 days or something before the midterm elections. But then you've also got to deal with the president's nominees and confirming nominees. Are you going to have [00:06:21] Speaker 2: issues there as well when you're back? Well, well, Maria, the good news is that we call it on block, which means our ability now to put 70 nominees under one vote is actually happening. We'll have a vote on that today. In my banking committee, we've been able to successfully get 34 nominees out. We are so far ahead of former previous Congresses on getting noms done. President Trump can celebrate the success he's seen from the Senate on his nominees. Coming back, we'll be able to get more done. We'll have to get reconciliation completed when we get back. We'll start that conversation just yesterday. The House has done some work on that as well. We're seeing a lot of progress because Republicans are playing on the same team. That's good for the American people. Yeah. And we've got to see the [00:07:08] Speaker 1: offsets that you all come up with for reconciliation 3.0. We'll wait for that. You've got to pay for it. All for September. Exactly. Senator, it's great to see you this morning. We so appreciate your time. [00:07:17] Speaker 2: Thank you, sir. God bless, Maria. See you soon.