A Republican US senator who has been at the center of conversations over the crypto market structure bill that is the industry’s top policy priority, Senator Cynthia Lummis, said the White House has resisted ethics language she discussed with Democrats.
That left the Wyoming lawmaker as a middleman trying to satisfy her Democratic colleagues in bipartisan talks while convincing the White House to participate, she said Tuesday at the Blockchain Association’s policy summit in Washington. Still, he believes negotiators should reveal their working draft before the end of the week and formally mark it next week.
Lummis said she and Democratic Sen. Rubén Gallego had come up with language on ethics. While she was not explicit about the details, one of the sticking points for Democrats has been her demand that top government officials not be allowed to profit from the industry over which they have political authority, aimed primarily at President Donald Trump and his family’s crypto businesses.
He said Democrats are also trying to get assurances that members of their party will be nominated as commissioners on the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, something the White House has so far refused to do, despite the bills’ intention to create bipartisan commissions.
“The White House responded and said, ‘You can do better than this,’ so it was unacceptable to the White House,” he said. Lummis said he will meet with his colleagues again “to try again.”
Lummis is the chairman of the digital assets subcommittee that sits on the Senate Banking Committee, one of two panels that must approve a bill, also including the Agriculture Committee.
“It’s time to unveil a product,” he said, although he acknowledged that legislative language is changing rapidly. “We’re in prime time now. We’re in the last two weeks.”
The industry is growing restless after weeks of closed-door talks that have had no outside input, he suggested.
“This product will be very strong when we’re done,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the Democrat who has acted as Lummis’ crypto partner for years. “Because not even the House addressed all the issues that we’re addressing with this draft. They didn’t even address decentralized financial exchanges,” he said, referring to the Clarity Act that the House passed earlier this year.
