{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/sen-tim-scott-honors-lindsey-graham-highlights-banking-committee-wins-at-south-carolina-business-council/", "Sen. Tim Scott honors Lindsey Graham, highlights Banking Committee wins at South\u00a0Carolina Business Council", "2026-07-23", "2026", "2026-07", "Republican", "Senate", "SC", "Tim Scott", "S001184", "www.scott.senate.gov", "timscott", "https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/jsf/jet-engine:press-list", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2014 This week, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) delivered remarks at a South Carolina Business Council gathering of industry and community leaders from across the Palmetto State in Washington. Sen. Scott honored the life and legacy of his friend and colleague, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, and his decades of service to South Carolina. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, he also highlighted the landmark 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, his work to establish clear rules of the road for digital assets, and the need for America to win the AI race.\n\nOn Senator Lindsey Graham\u2019s legacy:\n\nHe was the kind of guy that would go the extra mile because he knew it was important to you. And to have someone who loves our state so much that no matter how inconvenient it is for him, no matter how challenging it might be for all of us \u2014 Lindsey was there.\n\n[\u2026]\n\nMost of us celebrate the Working Families Tax Cut bill, 97% of Americans received a tax cut, somewhere around $250 a month, or what we like to say is $5 trillion. The challenge, of course, is that me nor Lindsey know what $5 trillion look like, but we can understand $250. So, to have a guy who\u2019s known for the Kavanaugh hearing, who\u2019s known for foreign policy, who\u2019s known for his strong, passionate defense of America, become your Budget chairman, it sent chills down the spines of every member of the United States Senate.\n\nBut to produce two, not one, but two reconciliation vehicles and get it through our conference is a miracle like Peter walking on the water. And literally without his wit and his humor, we would not have passed the Working Families Tax Cut bill, we would not have secured the national security apparatus through the budget vehicle called reconciliation.\n\nSo, Lindsey\u2019s footprint, without any question, indelible imprints in the sand from a foreign policy perspective. But without doubt, the nation will benefit for generations because of the multi-trillion dollar tax cut that [\u2026] 97% of Americans are benefiting from.\n\nAnd as we celebrated my Opportunity Zones, there\u2019s no doubt that they were embedded in the reconciliation vehicle so without that, we would not have Opportunity Zones 2.0 bringing over a $100 billion in its first iteration and to the poorest communities around the country and certainly the poorly named, I call it a high potential area, others called it the corridor of shame. If we\u2019re going to bring more resources into the hardest hit areas of South Carolina, we\u2019re going to have to be creative in bringing solutions to the table.\n\nOn the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act:\n\nAs Chairman of the Banking Committee, I\u2019ll say that we\u2019ve had a lot of success. Most folks are shocked that we\u2019ve had as much cooperation on the Banking Committee tackling some of the really important issues that all South Carolinians face and, frankly, Americans face.\n\n[\u2026]\n\nHumans like to see their kids do better. Doesn\u2019t matter whether you\u2019re a rich person or a poor person, if you\u2019re a black person or a white person. It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re a Tiger or a Carolina fan. It doesn\u2019t matter whether you\u2019re a Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, it just doesn\u2019t matter. What you really want in the end, are more opportunities for your kids to do better than you did.\n\nOn the Banking Committee, the 21st Century Housing bill really came together because we were able to find partnerships with folks like Elizabeth Warren and Senator Gallego and Senator Alsobrooks, and they partnered with Senator Rounds.\n\n[\u2026]\n\nWe were able to pass a housing bill 24 to zero and bring much needed reg reform [\u2026] to our country because we had people, disparate interests coming together on one common ground. [\u2026] And to see the Banking Committee take on the challenge of overcoming their own obstacles and to bridge the gap of relationships to get something so powerful and meaningful done as housing reform.\n\n[\u2026]\n\nAnd we were able, with Senator Rounds working with a Democrat on the other side, to put NEPA reform for housing in the bill and get all the Democrats to pass that, that is just a really cool thing to watch when you see people put some of their political interests behind them in order to serve their communities.\n\nOn the GENIUS Act and stablecoins:\n\nAnother thing that\u2019s really worked out very well for the long-term viability of our country really has to do with the GENIUS Act that makes our stablecoins a global phenomenon, number one. Number two, requires U.S. treasuries to back them, dollar for dollar. Number three, makes our U.S. currency more likely to remain the reserve currency of the world, because now more than $400 billion of treasuries are wanted and needed across the world because of the GENIUS Act.\n\nOn the Clarity Act:\n\nAnother part of our agenda that we were able to get out of committee in a bipartisan fashion is the Clarity Act, or our market structure legislation.\n\n[\u2026]\n\nIt\u2019s ultimately, I think, incredibly important that America remains a dominant economic superpower, which requires us to take a look at the future and make sure we work our way back from it, as opposed to trying to work our way towards it.\n\nNext week, we\u2019ll have a hearing on our capital formation bill, which I think will be interesting, which is basically empowering Main Street as it relates to finding more access and more resources on the local level so that we have more business startups.\n\nOn American leadership in AI:\n\nThe one thing that we are concluding in this artificial intelligence future is that liberal arts education is going to be more important, not less important. The ability to think critically is going to be more important, not less important.\n\n[\u2026]\n\nThe fact of the matter is that for us to have the kind of future we want to have, we are going to have to be not only critical in our thinking skills, but we\u2019re going to have to be entrepreneurial because the job situation as it relates to artificial intelligence, I think is incredibly positive.\n\nAnd long term, we\u2019re going to have more jobs not fewer jobs, but it will take a different skill set.\n\n[\u2026]\n\nMost of it, 95% of the conversation is about augmentation, which means the ability to do something better using AI, as opposed to eliminating something because of AI. [\u2026] But the truth of the matter is that 95% of the things that are done will be done by a human, plus AI, as opposed to AI and not a human.\n\nSome things really good news for the long-term job market, but we are facing something that is greater than even the potential of advancement. AI will help us solve cancer in a way that we can never do with the human eye. It\u2019s already having impact today, but fear and trepidation around electricity prices, water utilization, and aesthetics will stop the AI revolution from happening in America first, and it will empower China to beat America on this front if we don\u2019t get it right.\n\nIt\u2019s one of the reasons why the president was right when he decided to have an Executive Order that said, if you\u2019re building a data center, that data center has to be self-sufficient. And if it is not, then it will not pass his test, which I think is good news.\n\n[\u2026]\n\nYes, AI and the data centers will use more power but provide their own power, pay for it. So, what could happen ultimately is a subsidy for our electricity ratepayers, not a burden on our ratepayers.\n\n[\u2026]\n\nIf we are going to embrace it as a society, we need to understand the benefits in our households, now. We need to understand that the electricity costs will be absorbed by them. We need to know that the water utilization will not deprive us.\n\n###", 1, "2026-07-24T07:30:11Z", "2026-07-24T07:31:13Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/sen-tim-scott-honors-lindsey-graham-highlights-banking-committee-wins-at-south-carolina-business-council/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7794329430907965, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}