The Senate voted Wednesday to advance legislation setting up a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, bringing the crypto bill one step closer to a final vote in the upper chamber.
Eighteen Democrats voted with almost every Republican to end debate on an updated version of the GENIUS Act.
The new bill text was reached as part of lengthy negotiations between Republicans and crypto-friendly Democrats last month, ahead of an earlier procedural vote on the Senate floor last month.
The vote breakdown was largely similar to the May vote, although the bill picked up support from Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) while Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) switched her vote to oppose the measure.
Blunt Rochester had supported the bill both in the Senate Banking Committee in March and on the Senate floor last month.
She voiced some hesitation Tuesday about Senate leadership’s decision to forgo an open amendment process on the GENIUS Act, emphasizing that she hoped to see additional changes to the bill.
“I was really clear,” she told The Hill. “I hoped that there would be an open amendment process, and that’s what I heard Leader Thune say around last month, so I will take a look at this language, and we’ll make a decision from there.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) ultimately scrapped the push for so-called “regular order,” as controversial amendments — most notably, Sen. Roger Marshall’s (R-Kan.) Credit Card Competition Act — threatened to upend support for the bill.
The decision to move forward without an open amendments process frustrates a push by several Democrats to add in a provision that would prevent President Trump and other elected officials from profiting off stablecoins.
“The GENIUS act attempts to set up some guardrails for buying and selling a type of cryptocurrency, one type called a stablecoin,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said on the Senate floor ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
“Well, we need guardrails that ensure that government officials aren’t openly asking people to buy their coins in order to increase their personal profit or their family’s profit,” he continued. “Where are those guardrails in this bill? They’re completely, totally absent.”
However, crypto-friendly Democrats who have been deeply involved in negotiations are urging their colleagues to support the bill despite some of its shortcomings.
“It’s extremely unhelpful that we have a president who’s involved in this industry, and I would love to ban this activity, but that does not diminish the excellent work of this legislation,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday.
“It does not diminish the hard work that bipartisan group of senators put into this to make a difference and to write a law that can protect consumers, that can protect our financial services industry, that can protect the strength of the dollar, and that can protect people who would like access to capital,” she added.
The GENIUS Act likely faces a handful more votes before it can clear the Senate and head to the House. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) told The Hill on Tuesday that she expects a final vote on the bill next week.
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