Here’s what’s behind the holdup in the House as Republicans try — again — to pass a trio of cryptocurrency bills.
The House declared this “crypto week” with the aim of President Trump signing the GENIUS Act, which creates a framework for stablecoins tied to other currencies, later this week.
But here’s the problem: Time. The Senate and the House are victims of their own successes.
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First off, the GENIUS Act took four weeks to maneuver in the Senate. The House is trying to do this in a matter of days.
Secondly, the House ultimately had to eat the Senate’s version of the “big, beautiful bill” last month. And, later this week, the House must swallow the Senate’s version of the spending cancellation bill for public broadcasting and USAID.
The Freedom Caucus and other House conservatives are upset at the House always having to accept the Senate’s legislation. So, those lawmakers decided to assert themselves.
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That tanked the procedural vote yesterday to give clearance to the defense bill and the triumvirate of crypto bills.
So, President Trump and yesterday’s holdouts met at the White House to work out a new deal with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on the phone.
But the people NOT in the room were the people working on the Clarity Act, which establishes guardrails and “lanes” for regulation of crypto in the U.S.
One proposal has been to attach the bill to bar the federal government from creating a cryptocurrency to the Clarity Act.
But one source familiar with the discussions characterized that possibility as “toxic.”
Meantime, members of the House Financial Services and Agriculture committees want this linked to the defense spending measure, which is caught up in this mess about the “rule” getting tanked. But Fox is told they can’t attach the Clarity Act to a “must pass.”
The defense bill qualifies as something lawmakers absolutely must pass.
A source close to the talks told Fox that after trying to work this around the various committee chairs, the deal that may have been struck last night with the Freedom Caucus may have collapsed again.
That said, there is some criticism of House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn. Emmer is one of the primary backers of crypto in the House. And they’ve failed to round up the votes just to get onto the crypto bills.
Johnson is in what was described as “a pickle” and is getting an earful for not having this worked out.
That said, Fox is told if they can resolve this, the House could still try to move the GENIUS Act quickly so President Trump could sign the legislation into law Friday.
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