“If Senate Democrats block this landmark legislation after the administration has done everything possible to accommodate their concerns, stakeholders should make no mistake: It is Democrats who are blocking this legislation because they never took the legislative outcome seriously,” the White House official said.
Democratic negotiators such as Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Rubén Gallego and Angela Alsobrooks have reportedly not received details of the deal with Trump, who met in person with Republican senators last week. But many Democrats have drawn a line in the sand that the ethics provision, driven primarily by Trump’s own deep crypto connections, must be strong.
The dispute was recently intensified by the president’s revelations that he pocketed more than $1 billion last year from his crypto interests.
The White House, Republicans and their allies in the cryptocurrency industry are already building their arguments against any Democrat who does not accept the new response to their ethical demands. It is not clear when they will be able to see it.
The industry expects full circulation of the Clarity Act’s legislative language as early as Tuesday night or Wednesday, although that expectation has been repeatedly delayed since last week.
The Senate has less than three weeks to finish the bill, including the ethics portion, and overcome the political challenge of a floor vote before lawmakers leave town for their re-election campaigns. Technically there is enough time, but even without further meaningful debate, it would be scarce.
