The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee is holding its first hearing on crypto market structure legislation, giving lawmakers a chance to debate and vote on amendments and potentially advance the legislation itself.
ND (11:30 a.m. ET): After less than an hour of debate and only a handful of amendments, the Senate Agriculture Committee voted to advance its market structure legislation to the full Senate on a party-line vote (12 lawmakers voted for, 11 against). All eyes now are on the Senate Banking Committee, which postponed its own hearing on the markup earlier this month and has yet to set a new date.
ND (11:28 a.m. ET): Not mentioned so far during Thursday’s hearing: the crypto markets themselves, which have fallen sharply between 4% and 7% over the past 24 hours of trading. Bitcoin was hovering around $84,000 at press time.
JH (11:24 a.m. ET): We moved from Democratic amendments to a Republican amendment aimed at preventing foreign adversaries of the United States from interfering in US crypto markets. Sen. Tommy Tuberville pushed the amendment “aimed at ensuring our digital markets are not compromised by our enemies.”
But Tuberville agreed to withdraw his amendments understanding “what we are trying to accomplish today,” he said. So he asked that the ideas come back later.
ND (11:22 a.m. ET): More from Booker earlier:
“What I and so many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle see is that we are on the cusp of extraordinary humanity, of revolutionary breakthroughs that could give Americans a faster, cheaper and more inclusive financial system,” he said. “I have seen in my own community that the system we currently have often harms clients and hinders their ability to access financial markets. There is a democratizing force, or at least potential, moving across our country and across the world.
Senator Adam Schiff of California also commented that Democrats had a task force to support crypto legislation, comparing crypto to artificial intelligence: “We want these jobs. We want this industry to stay in the United States, and that means we need to have rules of conduct that we don’t make decisions primarily through litigation.
However, he expects the bill to advance along partisan lines due to the partisan nature of the bill, he said.
JH (11:17 a.m. ET): The opening Democratic amendments were defeated, as expected, on party-line votes, including the notable question intended to target President Donald Trump’s crypto business interests.
So far, the disagreements have been cordial, with Democrats gently accusing Republicans of abandoning negotiations and Republicans gently suggesting that the disagreements could be resolved later.
ND (11:14 a.m. ET): The second proposed amendment, this time by Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, would prohibit the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department from “providing digital commodity intermediaries with a taxpayer-funded bailout” in the event of a bank failure, citing Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank.
Boozman said “nothing in the bill would grant the CFTC authority” to provide bankruptcy relief, calling the amendment “unnecessary.”
The amendment failed by a vote of 11 to 12 along party lines.
ND (11:08 a.m. ET): The first amendment, proposed by Senator Michael Bennett, a Democrat from Colorado, addressed Democrats’ concerns about US President Donald Trump’s profits from his family’s various crypto interests and businesses.
“I think this issue goes to the heart of our democracy,” Bennett said. “This amendment isn’t about crypto or even particularly about President Trump. It’s about returning to a system of government and ethics that we thought the American people deserved.”
Boozman said he opposed the amendment because it went “far beyond” the jurisdiction of the Agriculture Committee.
The amendment failed by a vote of 11 to 12 along party lines.
ND (10:56 a.m. ET): Thursday’s hearing will see lawmakers propose amendments to the underlying text, which the committee released last week. As senators worked on bipartisan legislation, committee Chairman John Boozman said in a statement last week that “fundamental policy differences” remained and committee members had not reached agreement on the released text.
Senator Cory Booker, the Democrat leading negotiations on the bill, said in his opening remarks that lawmakers were close to agreement on key issues, highlighting the crypto ties of US President Donald Trump and his family as an outstanding point of concern, as well as the lack of a firm agreement on quorum within federal agencies.
“In football parlance, we’ve strayed from our own goal line by as much as 70 yards. We’re almost in the red zone on this bill, and that frustrates me, because I see a bipartisan glide path to land this plane, to get across the end zone,” Booker said.
Boozman, in his own opening remarks, said lawmakers had made “really significant progress” in crafting the bill.
“Advancing this bill is the first step, and there are many more steps to take to achieve these goals,” he said. “I also encourage the administration and Senate leadership to coordinate and ensure that the CFTC is fully constituted and adequately funded.”
