It seems as if the United States is now garnering increasing support for blockchain technology in the House of Representatives. That is at least the case if the Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy is anything to go by.



Could the US Congress adopt blockchain technology?



In fact, McCarthy recently made a passionate plea to the Select Committee for Modernization of Congress that blockchain technology should be widely adopted within the US government.



McCarthy testified before the committee on March 13th, and his testimony can be viewed in full online. The main takeaway from McCarthy’s plea was that potential modernization of the US Congress should be viewed as a ”window and an opportunity.”



However, McCarthy did not go so far as to suggest that the US government should employ a public cryptocurrency network. Rather, McCarthy proposed that the US government should develop its own blockchain.



Nevertheless, McCarthy ceded that in doing so, the US government will likely ”need help from the outside”, in reference to the many tech-savvy developers operating in the private, rather than public, sector.



Moreover, McCarthy went on to argue that utilizing new technologies such as blockchain technology could allow the public to get ”more ownership of their own government” and increase the trust in public institutions.



He went on to expand on this notion, and argued for why he was proposing that Congress should adopt blockchain technology:



”What I’m looking for s building greater confidence in the institution that we have – utilizing the 21st century technology to make us more customer friendly but at the same time give us greater information that can hold us accountable in this process.”



This proposal actually stands a decent chance of getting support



This is likely a proposition which will gain public support. Furthermore, the political gridlock plaguing both chambers of the US Congress does, notably, not extend to technological issues.



As such, it is actually feasible that both sides of the aisle can agree on implementing blockchain technology.



This is especially true seeing as the US federal government spends 80% of its over $60 billion IT budget on just ”managing outdated legacy systems” rather than investing in new technologies.



Subsequently, adopting blockchain technology could arguably save money – while at the same time improving transparency and efficiency. Financial organizations have already begun adopting blockchain for the same reasons, which McCarthy noted:



”Blockchain is changing and revolutionizing the security of the financial industry. Why would we wait around and why wouldn’t we institute blockchain on our own, to be able to check the technology but also the transparency of our own legislative process?”

