In a potential sign of the Biden Administration’s reengagement with crypto policy, the White House has rehired Carole House, a cybersecurity advisor who advised the president on his 2022 crypto-focused executive order.
House previously advised President Joe Biden from 2021 to 2022 as a director on the National Security Council focused on cybersecurity and digital innovation. She is considered to be relatively pro-crypto—at least compared with other voices in the Biden camp.
Just weeks ago, for example, House appeared to criticize the Biden Administration’s slow-moving progress on creating a clear regulatory framework for American crypto companies.
“One area that I do find extremely frustrating has been [the] lack of clarity on [a] pathway to registration or to successfully operate in this space,” House said during a recent appearance on the Web3 Working Group podcast. She went on to call out the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by name.
Decrypt reached out to both House and the White House for this story but did not immediately receive responses.
Since leaving the White House in 2022, House has advised several public and private organizations, including Terranet Ventures, a venture capital firm involved in crypto, and The Digital Dollar Project, a non-profit focused on exploring central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs.
Today, the veteran policymaker—who co-authored the White House’s 2022 executive order on “Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets”—announced that she will return to a new role on the National Security Council, as Special Advisor for Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Policy.
“[I am] honored to have been called to return to service of absolutely critical mission sets that are necessary to shape the future of secure and trustworthy digital economies,” House said in a post on LinkedIn.
The appointment comes as Biden’s crypto policies have come under greater scrutiny in the build-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election. After several high-ranking Democratic senators broke with the White House to pass a rebuke of the SEC’s handling of crypto, Biden vetoed the resolution and defended the SEC’s judgment.
Republicans, however, including former president Donald Trump, Biden’s presumptive November opponent, have recently seized on crypto as a potential election year wedge issue—by making increasingly explicit statements in support of the industry.
Perhaps due to that pressure, the White House has tacked in recent weeks back towards a less hostile crypto stance. Last week, a report revealed that Biden Administration officials are planning to attend a Bitcoin-focused roundtable to be held in Washington, in July.
Edited by Andrew Hayward