Democrats on the Senate Agriculture Committee said Thursday they remain committed to passing a crypto market structure bill, but they accused Republicans of derailing bipartisan talks after a GOP-only draft advanced on a party-line vote, as stated. All 11 committee Democrats opposed the measure while all 12 Republicans supported it, and Democrats said ethics language barring the president and other officials from profiting in crypto is needed.
Cory Booker, Democrats’ lead negotiator on the committee, said he wanted to get the bill finished and blamed the partisan shift for setbacks. “To be clear, the product put before us today is not the bipartisan draft we’re working on,” he said.
Booker added he had worked with stakeholders to resolve DeFi issues that did not appear in the GOP draft and blamed the Trump administration for complicating talks. “The White House has made this infinitely harder,” he said.
Adam Schiff and Elissa Slotkin said ethics provisions must cover the president and all federal officials to win Democratic support. “It’s going to need to include ethics language,” Schiff said, adding it should cover officials “from the president on down.”
Committee chair John Boozman said he still seeks a bipartisan outcome and suggested Democrats could add amendments later. Republicans defeated three Democratic amendments, including one that would bar federal officials from issuing or endorsing digital assets (Ed. note: the bill will likely require bipartisan support to pass), as stated.
