LAS VEGAS, Nevada — The U.S. Senate seems to beryllium getting adjacent to passing its landmark stablecoin bill, the GENIUS Act — a conflict its champion Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said has been incredibly hard-fought.
“It has been highly difficult,” Lummis said during a fireside chat with Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal astatine Bitcoin 2025 successful Las Vegas connected Tuesday. “I had nary thought however hard this was going to be.”
Last week, the Senate voted to beforehand the bill, easy clearing the 60-vote threshold required to footwear the measure to its past treatment signifier earlier the last ballot to walk it retired of the assemblage entirely. An earlier effort failed connected a bipartisan ground aft Senate Democrats, led by long-time crypto sceptic Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), arsenic good arsenic respective Republicans including Missouri’s Josh Hawley and Kentucky’s Rand Paul, voted against cloture.
Lummis, whose unit (along with that of the bill’s co-sponsor, Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York)) has played a cardinal relation successful the behind-the-scenes negotiations to get the GENIUS Act passed, said that she thinks the Senate has reached a last deal. If the measure passes, some Lummis and Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), the bill's sponsor, claimed that it would beryllium the archetypal portion of authorities passed retired of the Senate Banking Committee successful 8 years.
“It’s taken a tremendous magnitude of work,” Hagerty said, speaking connected a abstracted sheet treatment connected Tuesday. Hagerty added that long-time crypto skeptic Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the bill’s main opponent, made a concerted effort to resistance retired the proceedings successful the hopes of stalling the legislation’s progress.
Hagerty said that the bill, erstwhile passed, would beryllium the astir bipartisan portion of authorities to walk done the Senate Banking Committee successful implicit a decade. While the bill’s supporters spot that arsenic a win, they’re besides frustrated with the trouble successful getting authorities successful wide passed done the committee.
“We don’t person the musculus representation anymore to legislate. That’s our job,” Lummis said. “It truly is precise frustrating, precise exhausting, and you person to support your creativity, your consciousness of wit and your patience astir you.”
Lummis added that she was “very hopeful” the Senate could enactment behind-the-scenes with the House connected a marketplace operation bill, noting that the House has the vantage of “muscle memory” (following its transition of FIT21 past year) implicit the Senate erstwhile it comes to the adjacent hurdle of crypto legislation.