Congressman Steven Horsford told CoinDesk’s Consensus Miami conference on Tuesday that his bipartisan PARITY Act is an incremental way forward in a Congress where Senate market structure negotiations have stalled.
“PARITY is designed to set a durable floor, not to be the final word,” he said, noting that existing issues must be resolved “clearly within the jurisdiction of the tax code to have protections for the consumer, small businesses and those who own those assets to define whether it’s treated as income or capital gains.”
The Nevada Democrat co-authored the PARITY Act discussion draft with Republican Rep. Max Miller of Ohio in December and revised it on March 26. He told moderator Yesha Yadav that he prefers a narrow approach to sweeping alternatives, including Sen. Cynthia Lummis’ proposal. The risk of a sweeping bill, Horsford said, is that “it pairs really useful provisions with definitional language that is so broad that it creates other problems.”
PARITY’s overall provisions include a test of stable coin payments, a five-year tax deferral election on stakes and mining rewards, and an extension of wash sale rules to digital assets. Horsford said that while retirement account access is missing from the current drafts, he considers it “something that I personally want to see because in order to close the wealth gap, we need to be able to help people plan for their retirement. Digital assets are one way to do that. I know there’s real bipartisan appetite for us to work on that, but without rushing into the right language. unintended consequences.”
As for the broader political climate, Horsford said Senate negotiations to advance the CLARITY Act between senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks appear to be “on hold.” When asked if bipartisan crypto legislation could be passed before the November midterms, he declined to commit to a timeline.
“It’s less about a timeline and more about getting it right,” he said. “You can rush and pass a bill in Congress that has unintended consequences that you won’t be able to fix later.”
