Senate Crypto Bill Markup Delayed By Snowstorm, But May Still Get Hit With Partisan Vote

In brief

• The Senate Agriculture Committee delayed its crypto market structure vote to Thursday because of a snowstorm.
• The bill still lacks Democratic support, however, and a vote on party lines will likely do little to increase momentum for the bill.
• The federal government could also shut down on Friday night, creating further problems for the legislation.

The Senate Agriculture Committee announced Monday it will push an anticipated vote on a crypto market structure bill by two days, to accommodate a major snowstorm that continues to delay travel in and out of Washington. But the markup, initially scheduled for Tuesday and now set for Thursday, still faces plenty of hurdles. Those include the possibility that the vote will fail to gain the support of any Senate Democrats, and the likelihood that the federal government will shut down again on Friday night, pushing an already stalled crypto legislative process further down the list of lawmakers’ priorities. Democrats and Republicans on the Agriculture Committee have been working together for months to reach a bipartisan deal on their half of the Senate’s crypto bill. The Agriculture Committee, which oversees the CFTC, will handle portions of the legislation pertaining to commodities. The powerful Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the SEC, is handling the half of the bill related to securities law and traditional banking. 

Last week, however, Agriculture Committee chair John Boozman (R-AR) decided to move forward with a key vote on the crypto bill despite a lack of bipartisan agreement on its contents. The bill that will receive a vote on Thursday has no buy-in from Democrats, and “differences remain on fundamental policy issues,” Boozman said.  The bill could technically squeak through the Agriculture Committee Thursday on a party-line vote. But such a result could end up counterproductive for a legislative project that’s long been pitched as bipartisan and will ultimately require Democratic votes to pass on the Senate floor.  One Senate source told Decrypt they believe odds are currently “99% likely” that the bill will receive zero Democratic support at Thursday’s markup. That would be a rough outcome. Many of the bill’s supporters have hoped Agriculture’s markup could recapture bipartisan momentum for the legislation, after Senate Banking abruptly canceled its own crypto markup earlier this month.

That delay was largely due to crypto giant Coinbase’s public, last minute pull of support for the bill over a tussle with the banking lobby—a thorny issue that has yet to be resolved. Further adding to the stress is the massive ticking clock hanging over negotiations: most stakeholders agree the crypto industry has until spring of this year to get the bill passed, before preparation for November’s midterm elections grinds Congress to a halt. It’s looking increasingly probable that, in the wake of federal law enforcement’s killing of another civilian in Minneapolis over the weekend, lawmakers will fail to reach a deal on funding the U.S. government before a key Friday night deadline. Should the issue of the Department of Homeland Security’s budget derail those negotiations, then the U.S. government will shut down for the second time in four months—likely pushing crypto votes further out on the calendar, and possibly, further down lawmakers’ lists of priorities.