The US Senate Agriculture Committee is holding its first margin hearing on cryptocurrency market structure legislation, giving lawmakers a chance to debate and vote on amendments and possibly advance actual legislation.
North Dakota (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 are now back on the Senate Banking Committee, which postponed its own margin hearing earlier this month and has yet to set a new date.
North Dakota (11:28 a.m. ET): Not mentioned so far in Thursday’s hearing: the cryptocurrency markets themselves, which fell sharply by 4% to 7% in the last 24 hours of trading. Bitcoin was around $84,000 at the time of this publication.
JH (11:24 a.m. ET): We moved from Democratic amendments to a Republican one that aims to prevent foreign adversaries of the US from meddling in US crypto markets. Senator Tommy Tuberville pushed the amendment “to ensure that our enemies do not compromise our digital markets.”
But Tuberville agreed to withdraw his amendments understanding “what we’re trying to accomplish today,” he said. That is why he asked that the ideas can arise again later.
North Dakota (11:22 a.m. ET): More from Booker before:
“What I and many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle see is that we are on the cusp of extraordinary humanity, changes that could give Americans a financial system that is faster, cheaper and more inclusive,” he said. “I’ve seen in my own community that the system we have now often hurts customers, hurts their ability to access financial markets. There is a democratizing, or at least potential, force moving through our country and around the world.”
Senator Adam Schiff of California also commented that Democrats had a task force to support cryptocurrency legislation, comparing cryptocurrencies 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 the game where we’re not essentially making decisions through litigation.”
However, he said he expected the bill to advance along partisan lines due to the partisan nature of the bill.
JH (11:17 a.m. ET): Initial Democratic amendments failed, as expected, on party-line votes, including the featured issue aimed at targeting President Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency business interests.
So far it has been a cordial disagreement, with Democrats gently charging that Republicans abandoned negotiations and Republicans gently suggesting that disagreements can be resolved later.
North Dakota (11:14 a.m. ET): The second proposed amendment, this time by Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, would prohibit the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department from “offering digital commodity brokers a taxpayer-funded bailout” in the event of bank failures, singling out Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank.
Boozman said “nothing in the bill would give the CFTC authority” to provide bankruptcy assistance, calling the amendment “unnecessary.”
The amendment failed 11-12 on partisan lines.
North Dakota (11:08 a.m. ET): The first amendment, offered by Senator Michael Bennett, a Colorado Democrat, addressed Democrats’ concerns about US President Donald Trump’s earnings from his family’s various crypto interests and businesses.
“I think this issue goes to the core of our democracy,” Bennett said. “This amendment is not about crypto or even President Trump. It is 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 Agriculture Committee’s jurisdiction.
The amendment failed by 11 to 12 on party-line votes.
North Dakota (10:56 a.m. ET): At Thursday’s hearing, lawmakers will present 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 that committee members had not reached agreement on the text that was released.
Senator Cory Booker, the Democrat leading negotiations on the bill, said in his opening remarks that lawmakers were close to an agreement on key issues, pointing to US President Donald Trump and his family’s cryptocurrency ties as an area of outstanding concern, as well as the lack of a firm agreement on quorum at federal agencies.
“In football parlance, we moved from our own goal line to 70 yards. We’re almost in the red zone on this bill, and that frustrates me, because I see a bipartisan trajectory to land this plane, to get through the end zone,” Booker said.
Boozman, in his own opening remarks, said lawmakers had made “really significant progress” in crafting the bill.
“Moving forward on this bill is the first step, and there are many steps ahead to achieve those goals,” he said. “I also encourage the administration and Senate leadership to coordinate and ensure that the CFTC is fully constituted and adequately funded.”
