The Senate Agriculture Committee postponed the markup hearing on its crypto market structure bill, previously scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, by two days.
The committee had intended to let lawmakers debate amendments and vote on its version of the bill, which aims to define how the Commodity Futures Trading Commission can oversee crypto markets, but a once-in-a-decade winter storm hit the East Coast and much of the eastern half of the country over the weekend, canceling flights and altering the Senate’s schedule.
The Senate had previously canceled votes scheduled for Monday afternoon on a funding package for the entire government. The US government is running out of funding on Friday night, and the House of Representatives passed its funding package on Thursday.
The Senate must vote to advance its funding bills; those votes were pushed to Tuesday afternoon, giving lawmakers a chance to fly back to Washington, DC after being out of session last week.
On Monday, the Agriculture Committee said it would hold its hearing Thursday at 6 p.m. 10:30 a.m. ET instead, citing the “winter weather.”
The hearing is expected to prove contentious; while the agriculture committee was considered to have a more bipartisan draft, committee chairman John Boozman said in a statement last week that he and his negotiating counterpart, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, were unable to agree on the text because of “fundamental differences in policy.”
Democrats unveiled a series of amendments Friday that pointed to where those differences lay. They included provisions imposing ethical obligations on senior officials and strong language forcing regulatory agencies to be governed by bipartisan commissions.
The Senate Banking Committee, which also must pass market structure legislation, postponed its own hearing on its version of the bill earlier this month, although, unlike the Agriculture Committee, it has not yet set a new date.
The SEC and CFTC also postponed a planned joint press conference that had been scheduled for Tuesday through Thursday afternoon at 6 p.m. 2 p.m. ET.
Read more: The big US crypto bill is coming. Here’s what that means for everyday users
UPDATE (January 26, 2026, 15:38 UTC): Adds additional details, including SEC/CFTC exposure
