A Republican US senator who has been at the center of negotiations on the crypto market structure bill that is the industry’s top policy priority, Sen. Cynthia Lummis, said the White House has resisted ethics language she challenged with Democrats.
That has left the Wyoming lawmaker as a middleman trying to appease Democratic colleagues in bipartisan talks while convincing the White House to get on board, she said Tuesday at the Blockchain Association’s Policy Summit in Washington. Still, she believes the negotiators should reveal their working draft by the end of the week and formally flag it next week.
Lummis said she and Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego had come up with a language about ethics. Although she was not explicit about specifics, one of the points of contention for Democrats has been their demand that top government officials not be allowed to profit from the industry over which they have political authority — pointed mostly at President Donald Trump and his family’s crypto businesses.
She said Democrats are also trying to get assurances that members of their party will be nominated as commissioners of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which the White House has so far declined to do, despite the laws’ intent for bipartisan commissions.
“The White House kicked it back and said, ‘You can do better than this,’ so that was unacceptable to the White House,” she said. Lummis said she is regrouping with colleagues “to take another go.”
Lummis chairs the Digital Assets Subcommittee, which is part of the Senate Banking Committee — one of two panels that must sign off on a bill, including the Agriculture Committee.
“It’s just time to unveil a product,” she said, though she acknowledged that regulatory language is changing quickly. “We’re in prime time now. We’re in the last two weeks.”
The industry is getting sour after weeks behind closed doors that have not involved outside input, she suggested.
“This product is going to be so strong when we’re done,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the Democrat who has served as Lummis’ crypto partner for years. “Because even the House didn’t tackle all the issues we’re tackling with this draft. They didn’t even tackle decentralized financial exchanges,” she said, referring to the Clarity Act the House approved earlier this year.
